In this detailed but very readable study of the quest for peace over the last two millennia, John Gittings points out that by 2010 the US had spent an astonishing $444bn on the war in Afghanistan – 12 times the amount given in non-military aid to that war-torn country.
Gittings, a former East Asia editor at the Guardian, notes that war is rarely worth the price that has to be paid and its long-term consequences almost always outweigh any short-term gains. As Erasmus said, “hardly any peace is so bad that it is not preferable to the most justifiable war.”
This rich survey of “the powerful and multistranded narrative of peace” begins in ancient Greece and China, explores pacifism and the concept of the just war in Christianity as well as the attitudes towards peace of Renaissance humanists, Shakespeare (who evinced “a distinctly pacific outlook” in his later years) and Enlightenment thinkers, before assessing the successes and failures of the League of Nations and the UN.
The book is a welcome beacon of hope and idealism at a time when nationalism and bellicose self-interest are once again in the ascendant around the world.
• The Glorious Art of Peace: Paths to Peace in a New Age of War is published by Oxford. To order a copy for £11.43 (RRP £12.99) go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
