Our library in Hewett Centre is open every Sunday after service during Coffee Hour in Hewett Centre, and our Library Team offers related reading lists based on the topic of Sunday service. Here is their list for both the upcoming service featuring Rev. Shawn Gauthier on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024 at 11 a.m. as well as the Monday, Nov. 11 Peace Memorial at 2 p.m. All welcome in Hewett Centre after Sunday service to check out some books and to have coffee and conversation.
Note that there’s a list here of some books and resources compiled for last year’s Peace Caravan, including the “Global Solutions for Peace, Equality, and Sustainability” free course offered by the Greater Victoria Peace School (details here.)
VanU library books related to this Sunday’s sermon:
1. Gandhi on Non-Violence: A Selection From the Writings of Mahatma Gandi, by Mahatma Gandhi, 1965, 172 GAN [Gift of Phillip Hewett, in memory of Charlotte Pennell. From LibraryThing: “”One has to speak out and stand up for one’s convictions. Inaction at a time of conflagration is inexcusable.” – Mahatma Gandhi. The basic principles of Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence (Ahimsa) and non-violent action (Satyagraha) were chosen by Thomas Merton for this volume in 1965. In his challenging Introduction, “Gandhi and the One-Eyed Giant,” Merton emphasizes the importance of action rather than mere pacifism as a central component of non-violence, and illustrates how the foundations of Gandhi’s universal truths are linked to traditional Hindu Dharma, the Greek philosophers, and the teachings of Christ and Thomas Aquinas. Educated as a Westerner in South Africa, it was Gandhi’s desire to set aside the caste system as well as his political struggles in India which led him to discover the dynamic power of non-cooperation. But, non-violence for Gandhi “was not simply a political tactic,” as Merton observes: “the spirit of non-violence sprang from an inner realization of spiritual unity in himself.” Gandhi’s politics of spiritual integrity have influenced generations of people around the world, as well as civil rights leaders from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Steve Biko to Václav Havel and Aung San Suu Kyi. Mark Kurlansky has written an insightful preface for this edition that touches upon the history of non-violence and reflects the core of Gandhi’s spiritual and ethical doctrine in the context of current global conflicts”].
2. Gandhi’s Truth, by Erik H. Erikson, 1969, 921 GAN [From LibraryThing: “In this study of Mahatma Gandhi, psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson explores how Gandhi succeeded in mobilizing the Indian people both spiritually and politically as he became the revolutionary innovator of militant non-violence and India became the motherland of large-scale civil disobedience”].
3. The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace, by Howard Zinn, 2002, 327.17 WEI [Published by Beacon Press. From LibraryThing, what’s on the jacket: “… the first anthology of alternatives to war with a historical perspective – with an introduction by Howard Zinn about September 11 and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks – presents the most salient and persuasive arguments for peace in the last 2,500 years of human history. Arranged chronologically, covering the major conflagrations in the world. The Power of Nonviolence is a compelling step forward in the study of pacifism, a timely anthology that fills a void for people looking for responses to crisis that are not based on guns or bombs”].
4. Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea, by Mark Kurlansky, 2008, 303.61 KUR [Foreword by Dalai Lama. From LibraryThing: “In this timely, highly original, and controversial narrative, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky discusses nonviolence as a distinct entity, a course of action, rather than a mere state of mind. Nonviolence can and should be a technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars, he asserts, which is why it is the preferred method of those who speak truth to power. Nonviolence is a sweeping yet concise history that moves from ancient Hindu times to present-day conflicts raging in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kurlansky also brings into focus just why nonviolence is a “dangerous” idea, and asks such provocative questions as: Is there such a thing as a “just war”? Could nonviolence have worked against even the most evil regimes in history? Kurlansky draws from history twenty-five provocative lessons on the subject that we can use to effect change today. He shows how, time and again, violence is used to suppress nonviolence and its practitioners-Gandhi and Martin Luther King, for example; that the stated deterrence value of standing national armies and huge weapons arsenals is, at best, negligible; and, encouragingly, that much of the hard work necessary to begin a movement to end war is already complete. It simply needs to be embraced and accelerated. Engaging, scholarly, and brilliantly reasoned, Nonviolence is a work that compels readers to look at history in an entirely new way. This is not just a manifesto for our times but a trailblazing book whose time has come”].
5. Enough Blood Shed: 101 Solutions to Violence, Terror and War, by Mary-Wynne Ashford and Guy Dauncey, 2006, 303.69 ASH [Signed by a co-author. From LibraryThing: “Proven strategies for peace from an awakened civil society — “”the second superpower”””].
6. We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work, by Jimmy Carter, 2009, 956.05 CAR [From LibraryThing: “Nobel Peace Laureate Jimmy Carter argues that the present moment is a unique time for achieving peace in the Middle East–and he offers a bold and comprehensive plan. For the last three decades, as President of the United States and as founder of The Carter Center, Carter has studied the complex and interrelated issues of the region’s conflicts and has been actively involved in reconciling them. He knows the leaders of all factions who will need to play key roles, and he sees encouraging signs. Carter describes the history of previous peace efforts and why they fell short. He argues persuasively that the road to a peace agreement is now open and that it has broad international and regional support. Most of all, since there will be no progress without courageous and sustained U.S. leadership, he says the time for progress is now, and President Barack Obama is committed to a personal effort to exert that leadership.”].
7. The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map, by Ursula Franklin, 2006, 303.66 FRA [From LibraryThing: “Feminist, educator, Quaker, and physicist, Ursula Franklin has long been considered one of Canada’s foremost advocates and practitioners of pacifism. The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map is a comprehensive collection of her work, and demonstrates subtle, yet critical, linkages across a range of subjects: the pursuit of peace and social justice, theology, feminism, environmental protection, education, government, and citizen activism. This thoughtful collection, drawn from more than four decades of research and teaching, brings readers into an intimate discussion with Franklin, and makes a passionate case for how to build a society centered around peace”].
8. Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Greg Mortenson, 2009, 371.82 MOR [From LibraryThing: “In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson picks up where “Three Cups of Tea” left off in 2003, recounting his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders even as he was dodging shootouts with feuding Afghan warlords and surviving an eight-day armed abduction by the Taliban.”].
9. Pacifism in the Twentieth Century, by Peter Brock and Nigel Young, 1999, 327.17 BRO [Signed by co-author Peter Brock. From LibraryThing: “For college students and general readers, surveys the various movements advocating personal nonparticipation in war of any kind as a first step in finding nonviolent means for resolving conflict. Considers the heritage of previous centuries, conscientious objection, Catholicism and Judaism between the world wars, the antinuclear movement, and the Vietnam War. An updated and illustrated edition of Brock’s 1970 Twentieth-Century Pacifism published by Van Nostrand Reinhold.”].
10. Freedom from War: Nonsectarian Pacifism, 1814-1914, by Peter Brock, 1991, 327.1 BRO [Makes reference to Unitarian pacifists. Autographed by the author. From LibraryThing: “Brock (history emeritus, U. of Toronto) presents peace activism as historically including two groups: those who reject war on grounds of conscience, and the internationalists who, without the same commitment of conscience, nonetheless strive to accomplish a warless world. He discusses the early Anglo-American peace movement and the dispute between its two principle groups, the 1838 pacifist radical abolitionists, pacifism during the Civil War, and Tolstoyism. …”].
11. The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine, by Andrew Cockburn, 2021, 973 COC [Donated by Gerta Moray. From LibraryThing statement of the publisher description: “In the last decades, America has gone to war as supposed defenders of democracy. The War on Terror was waged to protect the West from the dangers of Islamists. US Solders are stationed in over 800 locations across the world to act as the righteous arbiters of the rule of law. In this volume, Cockburn dissects the intentions behind Washington’s appetite for war. The American war machine can only be understood in terms of the “private passions” and “interests” of those who control it – principally a passionate interest in money. Thus, as Cockburn reports, Washington expanded NATO to satisfy an arms manufacturer’s urgent financial requirements; the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet deployments were for years dictated by a corrupt contractor who bribed high-ranking officers with cash and prostitutes; senior marine commanders agreed to a troop surge in Afghanistan in 2017 “because it will do us good at budget time.” Based on years of wide-ranging research, Cockburn lays bare the ugly reality of the largest military machine in history: squalid, and at the same time terrifyingly dangerous”].
12. The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, by Amitav Ghosh, 2022, 363 GHO [From LibraryThing: “… frames climate change and the Anthropocene as the culmination of a history that begins with the discovery of the New World and of the sea route to the Indian Ocean. Ghosh makes the case that the political dynamics of climate change today are rooted in the centuries-old geopolitical order that was constructed by Western colonialism. This argument is set within a broader narrative about human entanglements with botanical matter-spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels-and the continuities that bind human history with these earthly materials. Ghosh also writes explicitly against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, and international immigration debates, among other pressing issues, framing these ongoing crises in a new way by showing how the colonialist extractive mindset is directly connected to the deep inequality we see around us today””].