Peace: a world history

摘要

What really is peace? If it is just the absence of war, we have only had a few years of peace in the millennia of recorded human history. But, as this book shows, we have a much greater reason for optimism. From the Pharaohs through Hammurabi in the Middle East, Confucius and Lao Tze in China, Ashoka in India, and Socrates and Plato in Europe, every society has thought about and constructed systems which afford individuals the opportunity to be at peace with themselves, groups to be at peace within themselves and groups to be at peace between themselves. Time and time again these systems recognize the hierarchy needed to create the most auspicious circumstances in which peace can flourish. Adolf explores the different ways in which societies have put into place what he defines as the five components of the hierarchical pyramid of peace.