Peace in World History
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Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 Peace in World History In Peace in World History, Peter N. Stearns examines the ideas of peace that have existed throughout history, and how societies have sought to put them into practice. Beginning with the status of peace in early hunter-gatherer and agri- cultural societies, and continuing through the present day, the narrative gives students a clear view of the ways people across the world have understood and striven to achieve peace throughout history. Topics covered include: • comparison of the Pax Romana and Pax Sinica of Rome and China • concepts of peace in Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam, and their histori- cal impact • the place of peace in the periods of expanding empires • the emergence, starting in the nineteenth century, of both formal schemes to promote peace and increasingly destructive technologies for warfare. Moving away from the view of history as a series of military conflicts, Peace in World History offers a new way of looking at world history by focusing on peace. Showing how concepts of peace have evolved over time even as they have been challenged by war and conflict, this lively and engaging narrative enables students to consider peace as a human possibility. Peter N. Stearns is Provost and a Professor of History at George Mason University. Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 Themes in World History Series editor: Peter N. Stearns The Themes in World History series offers focused treatment of a range of human experiences and institutions in the world history context. The purpose is to provide serious, if brief, discussions of important topics as additions to text- book coverage and document collections. The treatments will allow students to probe particular facets of the human story in greater depth than textbook coverage allows, and to gain a fuller sense of historians’ analytical methods and debates in the process. Each topic is handled over time – allowing discus- sions of changes and continuities. Each topic is assessed in terms of a range of different societies and religions – allowing comparisons of relevant similarities and differences. Each book in the series helps readers deal with world history in action, evaluating global contexts as they work through some of the key components of human society and human life. Gender in World History Asian Democracy in World History Peter N. Stearns Alan T. Wood Consumerism in World History: The Revolutions in World History Global Transformation of Desire Michael D. Richards Peter N. Stearns Migration in World History Warfare in World History Patrick Manning Michael S. Neiberg Sports in World History Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 Disease and Medicine in World David G. McComb History Sheldon Watts The United States in World History Edward J. Davies, II Western Civilization in World History Food in World History Peter N. Stearns Jeffrey M. Pilcher The Indian Ocean in World History Childhood in World History Milo Kearney Peter N. Stearns Religion in World History The Environment in World History John Super and Briane Turley Stephen Mosley Poverty in World History Agriculture in World History Steven M Beaudoin Mark B. Tauger Premodern Travel in World History Science in World History Steven S. Gosch and Peter N. Stearns James Trefil Premodern Trade in World History Alcohol in World History Richard L. Smith Gina Hames Sexuality in World History Human Rights in World History Peter N. Stearns Peter N. Stearns Globalization in World History Peace in World History Peter N. Stearns Peter N. Stearns Jews and Judaism in World History Howard N. Lupovitch Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 Peace in World History Peter N. Stearns Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 40 40 Routledge 40 Taylor &. Francis Croup NEW YORK AND LONDON First published 2014 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 And by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Taylor & Francis The right of Peter N. Stearns to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stearns, Peter N. Peace in world history / Peter N Stearns.—First edition. pages cm.—(Themes in world history) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. World history. 2. Peace. I. Title. D62.S74 2014 303.6'6—dc23 2013042311 ISBN: 978–0–415–71660–4 (hbk) ISBN: 978–0–415–71661–1 (pbk) ISBN: 978–1–315–87959–8 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 For Holden Jack, and a life of peace Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 Contents Acknowledgments x Introduction 1 1 Peace and early human societies 9 2 The great empires: Peace in Rome and China 23 3 Peace in the Buddhist tradition 35 4 Religion and peace in the postclassical age 47 5 Peace in a new age of empires 69 6 Peace in an industrial age 91 7 Peace in the decades of war 115 8 Peace in contemporary world history 139 9 Regional approaches to peace: The comparative challenge 160 Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 10 Peace ideas and peace movements after 1945 183 Epilogue 201 Index 205 Acknowledgments Christina Regelski provided invaluable research assistance for this book. Laura Bell went beyond the call of duty in readying the manuscript. My wife, Donna Kidd, encouraged the project from concept stage onward. I always appreciate the support of the Routledge series editor, Kimberly Guinta. Interaction with many faculty in George Mason’s School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution has educated me in many ways. I’m grateful to Kevin Avruch for his interest and guidance. My admiration also goes to Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, and the inspira- tion his ideas on peace have provided. Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 Introduction World history has not been kind to peace, either in human experience or in scholarship. While all sorts of people in many different societies and time peri- ods have craved peace, a successful devotion to peace is not usually as dramatic a goal as the pursuit of war. Most societies spend more time not at war than in war, but this statement is complicated by the extent to which wars may be planned or prepared during apparently peaceful interludes; and, as we will dis- cuss, it is certainly a rare moment in modern human history when a significant war is not occurring somewhere. That’s true today, and it has been true in the past. It’s also true that – in contrast to at least some other historical subjects – it’s impossible to paint a historical picture that suggests clear progress toward peace, despite some important efforts, at various points in time, in that direc- tion. We will see that there is a serious contention that right now, over the past 20 years, that the rate of global conflicts has been declining, and we have to assess this claim and whether it suggests a new stage in human affairs. But cer- tainly that past century has been a century of bloodshed, as people have learned how to kill each other in larger numbers than ever before. Here too, the study of peace may seem to go against the standard tide of history. Certainly historians have not for the most part treated peace kindly. There are far more studies of war than of peace. Survey histories, in most national and regional traditions, spend more time on war. The same is now true of the growing field of world history; to take a crude measure, it’s the rare index in a major textbook that lists peace as a topic at all. Of course there are countercur- Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:01 04 October 2016 rents. A beginning has been made in writing historical studies of peace, and certainly specific moments – a major treaty, the emergence of organizations devoted to peace – have their place. As a genre, peace study is gaining ground, and historical background normally plays a role here. Still, there’s little doubt that most people, at least in our society, think of history more in terms of war than of peace, and most history students gain little systematic knowledge about peace as a topic. At the popular level, the history of war can seem almost an obsession, par- ticularly among American males: to fill the hours of the History Channel on television, if World War II had not occurred, it would have had to be invented. 2 Introduction Military history is surpassed only by personal family history as a topic in the discipline, among the public in the United States.