The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace: Four-volume set [Hardcover]

Nigel Young (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2010 | ISBN-10: 019533468X | ISBN-13: 978-0195334685

"Finding peaceful solutions to the world's increasingly complex problems will be a huge task, which must also be based upon knowledge, experience and research. I hope that this important new Encyclopedia will reach a global lay audience as well as policy makers and academic experts and encourage many thousands of readers to study further and work harder for the peace on which our whole future depends." -From the Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

This innovative, multivolume encyclopedia charts the interdisciplinary field of Peace Studies, offering a comprehensive survey of the full range of historical, political, theoretical and philosophical issues relating to peace and conflict. All major figures are covered, as well as major events, organizations, theories, and much more. Each entry is signed by a leading scholar in the field, contains a bibliography for further reading, and is cross-referenced with other useful points of interest within the encyclopedia. In addition to A-to-Z entries, the Encyclopedia also includes a peace chronology, key documents and appendices.

Key subjects covered include: world leaders (Mahatma Gandhi, Margaret Mead, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lucretia Mott); major events (Cuban Missile Crisis, Dayton Accords, Good Friday Agreement, Lebanon Hostage Crisis); organizations (Greenpeace, League of Nations, United Nations, Save the Children, International Committee of the Red Cross); theories (Civil Disobedience, Conscientious Objection, Feminism and Peace, Power and Nonviolence Theory, Eco-Pacifism, Gay Rights); and current events (Chemical and Biological Weapons, Human Rights, War Crimes, Terrorism).

RUSA 2011 Outstanding Reference Source
Dayton Literary Peace Prize Recipient, 2011
Conflict Research Society Book of the Year, 2010

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Ours is a divided world, and conflict management poses a persistent challenge at all levels—individual, institutional, organizational, societal, and global. Today, peace studies is without question a diverse and socially important field in its own right. Across the academic spectrum, undergraduates, graduates, and professors alike are interested in peace and conflict research and analysis as well as peace values and action. Government, nonprofit, and commercial organizations whose work involves peace or aggression seek information on international relations and diplomatic history. Global politics continues to take center stage in the news—in print, on the air, or online—and the general public is increasingly engaged with this set of issues. Today, the field of peace building is without question fully professionalized. Make no mistake—The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace fills a critical niche at a critical time. Weighing in at four volumes, the Encyclopedia is a scholarly, but accessible, comprehensive reference work that quickly distinguishes itself among related reference works in the social, life, and physical sciences. More than 850 A–Z entries signed by an impressive roster of contributors cover the full range of historical, political, theoretical, and philosophical issues relating to peace and conflict. Readers interested in major figures, events, organizations, theories, and more will not be disappointed. A bibliography for further reading accompanies each entry. Cross-references to other useful points of interest within the encyclopedia add value, as do a “Chronology of Peace in History” and appendixes (“Key Documents,” “Key Terms in Peace Research,” “Negotiation Terms,” and “Selected Key References”). The closest competing work is the groundbreaking Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict (Academic, 2008), which has more than 190 multidisciplinary articles. Previous works, including the four-volume World Encyclopedia of Peace (Pergamon, 1986) or a work by the same title, the World Encyclopedia of Peace (Oceana, 2d ed., 1999), although comprehensive in their time, are no longer adequate resources for the twenty-first-century student, scholar, or general adult reader interested in peace issues. The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace is highly recommended for academic libraries and large public libraries. --Sarah Watstein

Review

"A fine addition to undergraduate research collections and institutions supporting peace studies."-Library Journal

"Quickly distinguishes itself among related reference works in the social, life, and physical sciences. Highly recommended." -Booklist, Starred Review

"This is another superb work from Oxford University Press. Highly recommended."-Choice

"A massive work. Despite the extraordinary number of contributors the contents have a consistent tone, reflecting careful editing. Peace groups and individuals should welcome the appearance of this Encyclopedia and advocate for its acquisition by university and public libraries everywhere or undertake the fundraising necessary to acquire and distribute it
."-Peace Magazine

"Invaluable and stimulating. A major contribution."-Resurgence

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 2848 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019533468X
• ISBN-13: 978-0195334685
• Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 12.2 x 5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 17.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Blessed are the Peacemakers", March 20, 2010

By 

C. Christopher Smith "Englewood Review of Books" (Indianapolis) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace: Four-volume set (Hardcover)

[ This review originally appeared in
THE ENGLEWOOD REVIEW OF BOOKS - 19 March 2010 ]

As followers of Christ, we are called to be peacemakers, and part of our education as disciples of Jesus is learning the things that make for peace. Thus, it has been exciting to see Peace Studies emerge as an academic discipline over the last three decades, and with the rise of Peace Studies come reference works that assist and propagate research. And now The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace (OIEP), published earlier this year by Oxford University Press, will undoubtedly reign supreme for many years as the key reference work for Peace Studies.

The four volumes of the OIEP represent a mammoth undertaking; its 850+ articles span over 2700 pages and were collected over a period of more than five years. The work begins with a brief foreword by the Dalai Lama who praises the work as a "scholarly but accessible reference work [which] will enable many of us to learn from the great ideals and struggles for peace over past centuries, and it will be a valuable resource for teachers of peace and for policy makers" (xix).

Also, included in the prefatory materials is a twenty page timeline of "Peace in History" - stretching from the Treaty of Kadesh, "the first recorded peace treaty" between The Egyptians and the Hittites in 1258 BCE, all the way through Barack Obama's recognition as the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2009. Each entry in the encyclopedia is complete with a hefty list of works for further reading on that topic. The OIEP concludes with almost 100 pages of key documents on peace from the modern era (all but three of these documents were penned within the last 100 years), and a thorough index of key terms and people.

Editor Nigel Young observes in the encyclopedia's introduction that this work intentionally includes "both `negative' entries (on preventing or ending war or violent conflict) and `positive' entries (on achieving a more cooperative, harmonious community)." Negative entries in the OIEP include topics such as "Arms Control and Disarmament," "Conscientious Objection" and "Women Strike for Peace," while positives entries include "Deep Ecology," "Open Space Technology" and "Sustainable Development." Young also notes that the editorial team has intentionally limited the number of biographical entries, as well as those on specific organizations - choosing instead to describe persons and organizations within more general entries (e.g., the civil rights movement). Thus, I found the index to be an invaluable tool in searching for references to specific individuals and organizations.

Although the OIEP takes a broad and pluralist approach, the Christian tradition of peace is well-represented here. There are, for instance, entries on all three of the major "peace church" traditions: Church of the Brethren, Mennonites, and the Society of Friends (Quakers), as well as entries on individual Christian peace advocates like Dorothy Day, Lucretia Mott, Leo Tolstoy and Martin Luther King, Jr. One also finds several historical entries related to Christianity (e.g. a brief entry on "Early Christianity and Antimilitarism"), as well as superb introductory pieces on "Christian Ethics and Peace" and "The Christian Peace Testimony." Although they did not merit their own entry, I was pleased to find a handful of references throughout to the Christian Peacemaker Teams.

The OIEP offers a powerful reminder that there are a host of ideological motivations for pursuing peace. Peacekeeping, for instance, is very different from peacemaking, and there are a host of political, social or religious narratives that undergird the pursuit of peace. Church communities shaped by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, are very different than the idealistic vision of modern liberalism, through which peace is believed to be attainable through reason and rational behavior. Some forms of peace are more sustainable than others, and in our fallen world most, if not all, movements toward peace eventually get corrupted, but the stories of such movements live on long after they have died off or become irrelevant, and these stories serve to inspire new generations of peacemakers in ways that often expand the scope of the original peacemaking vision. As people who believe that God is at work restoring shalom to all parts of creation - human and otherwise - works like the OIEP can be understood as painting a broad picture of God's work within human history toward the restoration of shalom.

Therefore, I highly recommend the OIEP, as an invaluable resource for church, school, university or seminary libraries; it is the sort of resource that not only reminds us of the manifold ways in which God is guiding humanity and all creation toward shalom, but it also energizes our imaginations toward faithfulness to our calling as peacemakers. Not only does it introduce a vast number of peace-related movements and ideologies, it also points us in the direction of other pertinent resources for us to seek out in order to assist our reflection on any given topic. The OIEP is the essential reference work in the area of peace studies, and as such it should be kept close at hand by those of us who seek to follow Jesus as peacemakers in a world that is still very much ensnared by the myth of redemptive violence and in which war, social, ecological and other sorts of conflict are still prevailing and defining forces.