Of War and Peace

World Peace Day is on September 21, but it’s unlikely the world will be pacified by then (and if, not for long…) Get a mostly historical view on War and Peace with 10 gems from our catalog.

War and Peace – we wouldn’t know one without the other. And sometimes the distinction is not that clear-cut. Michael Earls, Jesuit priest, writer, poet, and teacher wrote Ballads of Peace in War about WWI.

When the world’s secretaries of war receive a threatening message, “disarm within one year or see your battleships destroyed”, only reporter Jim Orrington takes it seriously. See if he can find The Man Who Ended War before it’s too late in the book by Hollis Godfrey.

Speaking of battleships, the naval battles of WWI are often overlooked in favour of the war in the trenches. Lewis R. Freeman collected Stories of the Ships from people who fought on the seas for the British and US navy.

But what if you don’t want to fight, like British officer Harry Feversham? He is promptly labelled a coward by his friends and even fiancée. Can he overcome the stigma of The Four Feathers in the novel by A. E. W. Mason?

Trygaeus is definitely not a coward, otherwise he wouldn’t dare to climb Mt. Olympus and question the gods about the ongoing Peloponnesian War. There he finds no gods but the God of War, and an unexpected prisoner… Aristophanes’s comedy Peace tells us the outcome of his journey.

Less clear is the result in the story by Poul W. Anderson. Captain Flandry hears that the Scothanis plan to conquer the Terran Empire. The ace saboteur is ready, but is taking the Tiger by the Tail such a smart move after all?

It’s certainly not a good idea to have only a small part of the inhabitants defending a city during a siege. G. A. Henty retells the historical facts from 70 AD in his adventure novel For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem.

The fall of the French kings opened a new chapter in European history. But the French Revolution soon descended into the rule of terror. The last novel of Victor Hugo, Quatrevingt-treize, leads you to the streets of Paris in 1793. This book is also available in an English translation.

Joseph H. Alexander takes to a small Japanese island in March 1945. While his true account Closing In: Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima naturally focuses on the US perspective, the Japanese point of view is examined as well.

The best viewpoint on peace lies in the aftermath of war. Henry van Dyke penned his three short sermons on What Peace Means shortly after WWI, but they remain relevant to this day.

Enjoy – and have a peaceful September!