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Did you know that Abraham Lincoln, when he was a congressman, vigorously opposed the Mexican American War? That is just one of the remarkable things that you learn in this exhaustive anthology of writings against the war from 1812 until today. They are generally short, compelling remarks and essays.

What is also most insightful is how many people made the case against war because the enterprise of killing other people often did not make any logical sense or was often not the most effective way to handle a crisis.

Lincoln, for instance, spoke out against the Mexican American War with words that could equally apply to Bush today: "Again, it is a singular ommission in this message that it nowhere intimates when the President expects the war to terminate. At its beginning, General Scott was by this same President driven into disfavor, if not disgrace, for intimating that peace could not be conquered in less than three or four months. But now, at the end of about twenty months, during which time our arms have been given us the most splendid successes, every department and every part, land and water, officers and privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that men could do, and hundreds of other things which it had never before thought men could not do -- after this, this same President gives us a long message, without showing us that as to the end he himself has even an imaginary conception. As I have said before, he knows not where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed man. God grant he may be able to show there is not something about his conscience more painful than all his mental perplexity."

Wow!

We stopped counting the number of wonderful advocates of peace in this book. It's like finally finding a kindred group of like minds with whom you can feel at home. What's most persuasive is to find how many sound arguments against many wars for empire there are because the conflicts will prove to be ineffective. War is often a losing proposition.

It's considered wimpy in this nation to advocate peace, which is the absence of violence and war. But these essays -- some by conservatives -- lay out that war is often ill-advised and driven by vague notions of a "victory culture."

This is an anthology well worth the read. It might also help you feel that you peace is a battle worth waging, so to speak.

About the Editors:

Murray Polner is a freelance editor and writer whose work has appeared in Washington Monthly, Commonweal, The Nation, Columbia Journalism Review, and the Jewish Week, among others. He lives in Great Neck, New York.

Thomas E. Woods, Jr., is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His numerous books include the New York Times bestseller The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Woods lives in Auburn, Alabama, with his wife and three daughters.


BUZZFLASH REVIEWS