Peace is Everybody's Business : Half a Century of Peace Education with Elizabeth Evans Baker [Paperback]

Marta Daniels (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0963661000 | ISBN-13: 978-0963661005 | Publication Date: November 1, 1999

Peace is Everybody's Business spans 50 years in the life of Elizabeth Evans Baker (1902-1990) who was an essential figure in the establishment of peace studies in higher education, the First Lady of Ohio University, founder of the Monomoy Theatre on Cape Cod, and UN Goodwill Ambassador. The book covers the history of peace studies in the US, explores the peace movement of the late 20th century, and delves into the relationship between art, nature, beauty, peace and the meaning of life. It is a story about imagination, caring, courage, determination, leadership and personal integrity. Elizabeth Baker was an artist, actress, musician, theatre patron, poet, peace activist, wife and mother. As an ardent patron of the arts, she understood, and helped others to understand, that art and creativity cannot long survive in a world obsessed with destructive power. Out of her passionate convictions she, along with her educator husband, John Calhoun Baker, helped establish peace studies curricula at several colleges and universities beginning in the 1960s. The book shows how these academic programs provided much of the early intellectual blue prints for the over 200 schools who offer peace education programs today. In tracing this remarkable academic achievement, Daniels' book provides the first history of peace studies in the U.S. and offers readers inside profiles of distinguished peace educators and activists with whom the Bakers worked. Among these are UN architect Andrew Cordier, A-bomb scientist George Kistiakowsky, Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams, first peace studies professors Gladdys Muir and Elise Boulding, Vietnam War Memorial artist Maya Lin, and the legendary cross-country walker, "Peace Pilgrim" whose spiritual writings Elizabeth Baker distributed in Russia. Using splendid quotations of prose and poetry from Elizabeth Baker's sixty years of journals, the author skillfully weaves through the book Baker's passionate and eloquent writings on the role of women, the evils of science run amok, the responsibilities of citizens in a democracy, and the relationships she saw between peace, art, nature, beauty and the meaning of life. Elizabeth Baker, who always considered herself "just a housewife," showed how ordinary people with extraordinary commitment can make a significant difference. Her story is one to read, celebrate and cherish.

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you are a student or teacher in the peace studies field, this book will anchor you in a much needed and well-written history of the discipline. If you are an activist, this book will inspire and sustain your work for a more peaceful world. But no matter what your occupation, you will find in this book a comforting and compelling reminder that each of us has something vital we can contribute to a better world. As the story of Elizabeth Evans Baker shows, we need only search inside for it. -- Michael Klare, Director, 5-College Peace and World Security Studies, Amherst, MA

The life of Elizabeth Evans Baker, eloquently given here by Marta Daniels, is a tribute to life itself lived whole-heartedly with imagination and purposeful action. Guided by a passionate response to the earth's natural beauty and to the arts which translate and embody the human spirit, here was a finely attuned integrity that could focus and rally and inspire the necessary work for peace in which any creativity, social and artistic, must be grounded. What spoke to her in her heart, she did more than record in her journals - she lived her words. Hers was an eloquent life. -- Margaret Gibson, Poet, Author of Earth Elegy, UConn, Storrs, CT

With masterly strokes, Marta Daniels renders a riveting portrait of Elizabeth Evans Baker, a strong woman who radiated personal grace melded with prophetic moral vision. This captivating story shows how a person dedicated to global peace, justice, and natural beauty, by pioneering a political landscape ahead of her contemporaries, can educate our minds, uplift our spirits, inspire courage in our hearts, and challenge us to be better people than we thought we could be. -- Robert Johansen, Director, Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

About the Author

Marta Daniels is a writer and widely known lecturer and activist in the peace field. From 1986 to 1996 she was the executive director of Options, A University Outreach Program on International Security based at Brown University. In that capacity, from 1993 to 1996, she helped found and then co-directed the National Endowment for the Humanities' library project, Choices for the 21st Century, a nationwide reading and discussion program on foreign policy issues. She is a Quaker and has worked for the American Friends Service Committee. She has also served as a consultant for the United States Institute of Peace and for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She is a 1970 Juniata graduate, and lives in Chester, CT.

Product Details

• Paperback: 254 pages
• Publisher: Juniata College (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963661000
• ISBN-13: 978-0963661005
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,233,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elizabeth Baker's Quest for Peace, February 19, 2000

By 

imakilner "imakilner" (Huntingdon, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peace is Everybody's Business : Half a Century of Peace Education with Elizabeth Evans Baker (Paperback)

THIS IS MY FINAL REVISED VERSION OF THIE REVIEW. SORRY FOR THE PREVIOUS ATTEMPT. jack troy <[e-mail]> wrote: Elizabeth Evans Baker's Quest for Peace Reviewer: jack troy from Huntingdon, PA USA

Elizabeth Evans Baker (1902-1990) led a full life as First Lady at Ohio University, founder of the Monomoy Theatre on Cape Cod, as an actress, mother, patron of the arts, and poet, but her inner tuning-fork vibrated for the cause of peace. She struggled with an ancient human dilemma - how to discover and use moral imagination as an alternative to violence in resolving conflicts. Because she and her husband were in a position to put their ideals into action, they were instrumental in funding peace studies programs at a number of colleges, but Elizabeth was the driving force, as Marta Daniels documents in her well-organized, and clearly-written book. Elizabeth Baker was in a position to do something about the sad fact that America has a War College, but no Peace College. Her response was not only personal (as Daniels shows, through excerpts from EEB's diaries), but far-reaching, since she helped fund and organize peace-studies programs devoted to what has become known as "irenology" - the systematic, interdisciplinary study of the causes of war and the conditions of peace. Her dedication helped establish and enlarge an awareness that has materialized so that nearly 200 U. S. colleges now offer courses and undergraduate degree-granting and certificate-granting Peace Studies programs. As I read this book I was struck by the degree to which Mrs. Baker's idealism found pragmatic expression with enduring effects, as authenticated by her persistence for 20 years to make possible Maya Lin's Peace Chapel at Juniata College in central Pennsylvania. Visiting the site helps me realize what this book documents: that art and peace can be as linked in locale as they were in the mind and spirit of Elizabeth Evans Baker.

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly written biography and "peace study"., June 4, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Peace is Everybody's Business : Half a Century of Peace Education with Elizabeth Evans Baker (Paperback)

Peace is Everybody's Business focuses on the peace making efforts of Elizabeth Baker and her husband, peace advocates and educators who proved pioneers in the field in the last part of the 20th century. Readers receive both an excellent biography of Baker and a focus on the establishment of peace studies in higher education. The latter is especially important as few books have examined this process.