Books on war, peace, religion, and the Iraq War

Compiled from recommendations of TJMC UU members and friends, the UUA, UVa. Department of Religious Studies, Charlottesville Clergy and Laity for Justice and Peace, local scholars and activists. Amazon.com provides summaries and reviews.   

Aburish, Said, Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge (London: Bloomsbury 2001)

Armstrong, Karen, Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today’s World (Random House 2001)

Avram, Wes, ed., Anxious About Empire: Theological Essays on the New Global Realities   (Brazos Press, 2004)

Blum, Bill, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II (Common Courage Press 2004)

Cahill, Lisa Sowle, Love Your Enemies: Discipleship, Pacificism, and Just War Theory (Augsburg Fortress Publishers 1997)

Chomsky, Noam, Hegemony or Survival (Holt 2003)

Cobban, Helena, Amnesty after Atrocity: Healing Nations after Genocide and War Crimes (Paradigm 2007) A book on processes that restore a society after violence, with South Africa, Rwanda, and Mozambique as examples. The author is a prominent writer, columnist, and Friend in Charlottesville.

Coll, Steve, Ghost Wars (Penguin 2004) One Hundred and twenty-eight reviews on Amazon – 4 and ½ out of five stars. Highly recommended by local people.

Cortwight, David, Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas (Cambridge University Press 2008)

De Waal, Frans B.M, Peacemaking among Primates (Harvard 1989)

Dorrien, Gary, Imperial Designs: Neo-conservatism and the New Pax Americana   (Routledge, 2004)

Dreyfus, Robert, Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (Henry Holt and Company, 2005)

Engelhardt, Tom, The End of Victory Culture (University of Mass. Press 2007) 

Evans, Jodie and Medea Benjamin, eds., Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism (New World Library 2005) Includes essays by Alice Walker, Arundhati Roy, Eve Ensler, Ann Wright, and many others. Highly recommended by local people

Faludi, Susan, The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post 9-11 America, (Metropolitan Books 2007)

Fleming, D.F., The Cold War and Its Origins, 1917-1960 (Doubleday 1961)

Gerson, Joseph, Empire and the Bomb (Pluto Press 2007)

Goldberg, Michelle, Kingdom Coming: The Rise in Christian Nationalism (Norton 2007) Written by a Salon.com reporter. Eighty reviews on Amazon.com – 4 ½ out of 5 stars.

Gray, J. Glenn and Hannah Arendt, The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle (Bison Books 1998)

Hedges, Chris and Laila Al-Arian, Collateral Damage, (Nation Books 2008)

Hedges, Chris, War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning  (Public Affairs, NY, 2002) The title is totally misleading. The author writes about the horrors he has witnessed while covering many wars in his capacity a reporter. Highly recommended.

Hillman, James, A Terrible Love of War (Penguin 2004)

Hirst, David, The Gun and the Olive Branch: The Roots of Violence in the Middle East (Nation Books 2003)

Holland, Jack, Misogyny: The World’s Oldest Prejudice (Carroll & Graf Publishers 2006) Written by a well-respected Irish author and journalist. Highly recommended

Holmes, Arthur F. War and Christian Ethics: Classic and Contemporary Readings on the Morality of War (Baker Academic 2005)

Irons, Peter, War Powers (Metropolitan Books 2005)

Johnson, Chalmers, Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire Holt 2000); Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (2004); Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2008)

Kaku, Michio & Daniel Axelrod, To Win a Nuclear War, The Pentagon’s Secret War Plans, South End Press, Boston, l987. 

Katz, Jackson, The Macho Paradox (Sourcebooks Inc. 2006) 

Klein, Naomi, Shock Doctrine (Metropolitan Books 2007) Highly recommended by local readers and activists

Kurlansky, Mark, Non-Violence: Twenty-Five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea (Modern Library 2006) Short, clear discussions. Highly recommended.

Labeviere, Richard, Dollars for Terror; The United States and Islam (Algora 2000)

Lakoff, George, Don't Think of an Elephant!   (Chelsea Green, 2004)

Lando, Barry M., Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush (Other Press 2007) By a former 60-minutes reporter.

Lerner, Michael, The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006)

Maguire, Daniel C.  A Moral Creed for All Christians (Fortress Press, 2005)

Marsh, Charles, The Beloved Community: How Faith Shapes Social Justice, from the Civil Rights Movement to Today (Basic Books, 2005)

McCoy, Alfred W., A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation from the Cold War to the War on Terror (Holt 2006)

Miller, Richard B., Ed., War in the 20^th Century: Sources in Theological Ethics (Westminster John Know Press 1993)

Nye, Jr., Joseph, The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone   (Oxford University Press, 2002)

Pappe, Ilan, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Reprint, One World Publication 2007)

Phillips, Kevin, American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century (Viking, 2006)

Phillips, more titles: The Cousins’ Wars; Wealth and Democracy; American Dynasty

Ray, Ellen & William H. Schaap, eds, Bioterror, Manufacturing Wars the American Way (Ocean Press 2003) A sad book indicating U.S. use of bio-chemical killers in various countries throughout the world, including the exposure of American troops during the Gulf War. 

Richardson, Louise, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy Containing the Threat (Random House 2006)  A Harvard terrorism expert examines terrorist groups’ aims and motivations.

Ricks, Thomas E., Fiasco (Reprint, Penguin 2007)

Riley-Smith, Jonathan, The Crusades. (Yale 2005) A Cambridge Professor makes the case that the Crusades were the occasion when the Christian Church developed a theology that ordains violence.

Sachs, Jeffrey, The End of Poverty (Penguin 2006)

Scahill, Jeremy, Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army (Nation Books 2007) Examines the growing privatization of armed conflict, especially in Iraq. Highly recommended.

Solomon, Normon, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (Wiley 2006) Written by an American media analyst, the book examines the media’s affect on war and myth-making and describes the climate of “psychic numbing” it creates; the documentary by the same name is also highly recommended.

Stassen, Glen H., ed. Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War (Pilgrim 1998)

Stone, I.F., The Hidden History of the Korean War: A Nonconformist History of Our Times (Reprint, Little, Brown 1988)

Tanaka, Yuki, Japan’s Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During WW II and the U.S. Occupation (Routledge 2001)

Taylor, Mark Lewis Religion, Politics and the Christian Right: Post 9/11 Powers and American Empire   (Fortress Press, 2005)

The Arbinger Institute, The Anatomy of Peace (Berrett-Koehler Publishers 2006)

The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims by Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Sister Joan Chittister, and Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Beacon Press 2007) Emphasizes the importance of dialogue

Vidal, Gore, Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace, How We Got to Be So Hated, (Thunder’s Mouth Presses/ Nation Books, 2002)

Wallis, Jim, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (Harper SanFrancisco, 2005)

Walzer, Michael, Arguing About War (Yale 2004)

Walzer, Michael, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations (Reprint, Basic Books 2006)

Webster-Doyle, Terrence, Operation Warhawks, How Young People Become Warriors, (Atrium Society Publications, Middlebury, Vermont, l993) Describes the training young people go through. 

Weiner, Tim, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Doubleday 2007)

When the Rain Returns: Towards Justice and Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel (American Friends Service Committee 2004), By a Quaker working group, about the Palestine-Israel conflict, including a way out. Helena Cobban is one of the co-authors.

Wink, Walter, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination (Fortress 1992)

Woodward, Bob, State of Denial (Reprint, Simon and Shuster 2007)

Wright, Col. (ret.) Ann, Dissent: Voices of Conscience – Government Insiders Speak Out Against the Iraq War (Koa Books 2008) Wright was one of the first to resign in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This inspiring book includes the stories and resignation letters of these government insiders. The book also includes the texts of the Downing Street Memos, with U.S. and British war planning. Highly recommended.

Yoder, John Howard, Nevertheless: Varieties of Religious Pacificism (Herald 1992)

Yoder, John Howard, When War is Unjust: Being Honest in Just War Thinking (Wipf and Stock Publishers 2001)

Youth Division of Soka Gakkai, Cries for Peace, Experiences of Japanese Victims of World War II (The Japan Times, Ltd.,1978) The Soka Gakkai is a new religion in Japan. The misery suffered by the people, who personally did not instigate a war, is common throughout the world.