Decades ago, when I was very young, about third- or fourth-grade age, I, home-schooled, and my poor government-schooled contemporaries were assigned to read, as textbook, "A Child's History of the World," by V.M. Hillyer.
Fairly recently I started reading it online but got distracted.
I was reminded of it, though, when I started reading "Peace, Love, & Liberty" (the comma after "Love" is on the cover even if not listed in the title here).
In that long-ago reading, an almost-unanimous conclusion after one particular chapter was that it was boring: It was the first chapter not to be about war!
Union General Sherman proclaimed, "War is hell!" and then led his arsonists and rapists on a rampage to prove it.
Confederate General Lee, though, said, "It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."
Except for George Washington and Winston Churchill -- both of whom wrote exultantly of having bullets pass near them -- most people, especially soldiers who have actually "been there," oppose war.
Widows, orphans, and the war-maimed certainly oppose war.
Samuel Pettingill noted, "War –- after all, what is it that the people get? Why -- widows, taxes, wooden legs and debt."
Somehow, though, somehow, we seem always embroiled in war. WHY?
This excellent book offers both an answer to that question and some suggestions as to how to prevent future wars.
Contents of "Peace, Love, & Liberty" are so good, so consistently profound and important, it's difficult to single out one chapter, but I will try: Chapter 11, "The Art of War," by Sarah Skwire, whose work I have admired before, is my choice as the best and best-written, but she sure has stiff competition.
Included along with that written for this book are some classic works such as the Mark Twain "The War Prayer," which should surely jar any "patriot" into some new thinking.
Poetry by W.H. Auden is referenced and by Wilfred Owen quoted in full.
"Peace, Love, & Liberty" is another of those gems from Jameson Books, small but powerful, and so (relatively) inexpensive that a concerned parent or teacher or civic group could buy cartons of it to distribute to, for example, graduating students or, maybe better, rising seniors.
All praise to Jameson Books, to the Atlas Network, to Students for Liberty, and to Tom G. Palmer, editor and contributor.
As the subtitle tells us: "War Is Not Inevitable." ( )