FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W2129125433> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W2129125433 endingPage "226" @default.
• W2129125433 startingPage "224" @default.
• W2129125433 abstract "World War I marked the birth of the “modern” American Peace Movement. The movement represented a marked departure from the conservative, elite-minded approach to world peace espoused by internationalists and arbitrationists, who filled the ranks of organizations such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Edwin Ginn's World Peace Foundation. The “modern” movement insisted that peace was more than the absence of war and that social, economic, and racial justice at home was an extension of that struggle for global harmony. Leading the way in this endeavor was the birth of a separate women's peace movement, a movement that began during the war.Eschewing the prewar male-dominated peace organizations in the United States, women such as Jane Addams, Julia Grace Wales, Alice Hamilton, and Emily Green Balch, among others, injected a dose of political feminism in the postwar peace crusade by establishing their own organization, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). The basis for creating this organization rested on four principles: (1) that peace efforts must be directly linked to institutional violence against women; (2) that condemning militarism and governmental oppression is an extension of the social and economic exploitation of women; (3) that a women's peace movement was necessary for seeking the causes of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of women; and (4) that recalling historical connections between white women's work in the abolitionist crusade and the sexual degradation of female slaves increased people's awareness of female independence and racial justice through the mechanism of peace work. This last aspect is what Melinda Plastas, who teaches in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Bates College, compellingly and elegantly brings to life.Plastas seeks to examine the political dynamics of race and peace through the thoughts and actions of notable white and African American female members of the WILPF. Relying on feminist peace history scholarship such as Joyce Blackwell's No Peace without Freedom: Race and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915–1975 and Harriet Hyman Alonso's path-breaking survey, Peace as a Women's Issue: A History of the U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women's Rights, Plastas's carefully constructed analysis approaches the matter from three angles: (1) how WILPF attempted to address the matter of peace and freedom; (2) how WILPF challenged U.S. foreign policy in Haiti and Liberia as well as domestic policy concerning anti-lynching legislation; and (3) the uneven attempts to tackle racial harmony within WILPF's membership and leadership. Relying on WILPF as her case study, Plastas offers readers a chance to probe one organization's attempt to address how “early twentieth-century racism was both practiced and contested” and how World War I shaped “the political consciousness and activities of African American and white women interested in contesting war and justice” and how these foreign and domestic issues “changed and sometimes merged” (p. 3).The book is divided into two parts. After a lengthy introduction outlining the historical background for the book's themes—a section that is at times belabored and distracts readers from the major focus—Plastas devotes two chapters to the intellectual frameworks and political strategies of three black women—Addie Hunton, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Jessie Fauset—and three white women—Rachael Davis Dubois, Emily Greene Balch, and Anna Melissa Graves, followed by two chapters on WILPF's interracial peace committees in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. The book is devoted primarily to the 1920s and early 1930s, with a slight connection to the early Cold War years.Using WILPF as the lens for examining early twentieth-century race consciousness, Plastas explores Hunton's fight for leadership in mixed-gender race associations, Dunbar-Nelson's transformation from World War I patriot to peace and justice racial activist, Fauset's unrelenting desire to link peace and pan-Africanism, Dubois’ championing of educational systems to promote peace and racial understanding, Balch's unbending criticisms of U.S. imperialism and racialized nationalism, and Graves's global sojourns on behalf of people of all colors and her disagreements with Balch regarding WILPF's position on Liberia and oppressive regimes. The book consistently reflects the belief that WILPF's work remains important: “what matters the most to us today as we face a world still deeply wedded to mentalities of violence, racism, and chauvinistic nationalism is the WILPF's belief in the general principles of cosmopolitanism” (p. 245). In terms of the interracial committees’ efforts, moreover, Plastas correctly points out the liabilities of the gradualist approach within WILPF, which ultimately led to disillusionment and disenchantment among African American peace reformers like Hunton, Addie Dickerson, and Jane Hunter. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the book is its discussion of the tea and garden parties black female peace advocates held in order to elevate their importance within the white-dominated WILPF and to bring attention to the inherent difficulties associated with race. The “teas and garden parties hosted in the homes of African American women,” Plastas notes, “could enhance their pubic profile and their recognition as peace activists” and in so doing “diminished the power of white scrutiny while simultaneously elevating their own authority as peace workers within black communities” (p. 175).The strengths of the book are apparent: an investigative approach to understanding the dynamics of race and peace within WILPF; an extensive examination and compilation of the relevant sources, especially the Swarthmore College Peace Collection; an affinity for gender and women's history; and an interest in extending the narrative of peace history to include the part played by gender in transforming the peace crusade from its prewar conservatism to a new role as dynamo of social change.If the book has a central weakness, albeit minor, it is that Plastas tends to disrupt the narrative with unnecessary injections of scholarly opinion in an effort to back up her points—a dissertation hangover. This is most noticeable in chapter 3, where she introduces numerous scholars’ views, including those of Mary Renda, Peggy Pascoe, John Higham, Louise Newman, and I. K. Sundiata. A brief comment regarding their observations would do instead of a paragraph or more that takes the focus off her central characters. Additionally, her argument about the dynamics of race and peace within WILPF would have had more weight if she had explored the correspondence and opinions of her “band” of three black and three white “noble women.” This reviewer kept searching the endnotes to see whether Hunton and Balch, or Fauset and Dubois, addressed their feelings or opinions to each other or whether Hunton and Dunbar-Nelson or Balch and Dubois wrote about how they felt regarding the other women in the narrative. Much of Plastas's discussion centers on her subjects’ political concerns and views, especially as they relate to peace and race, not their “noble” personal qualities and relationships with fellow activists.These criticisms aside, A Band of Noble Women highlights the way in which black women, in particular, sought to use their middle-class status as the mechanism for ingratiating themselves within the white leadership of WILPF. While not very successful, their efforts paved the way in later years, particularly during the early Cold War, when black women such as Bertha McNeill pleaded for world peace in the name of social justice. The peace and freedom struggles of the 1940s through the 1960s owe a debt of gratitude to the black and white “noble women” depicted in this story. This book is a serious scholarly contribution to the field of peace and women's history, and the author is to be commended for her efforts." @default.
• W2129125433 created "2016-06-24" @default.
• W2129125433 creator A5066486760 @default.
• W2129125433 date "2014-10-01" @default.
• W2129125433 modified "2023-10-18" @default.
• W2129125433 title "A Band of Noble Women: Racial Politics in the Women's Peace Movement" @default.
• W2129125433 doi "https://doi.org/10.1162/jcws_r_00479" @default.
• W2129125433 hasPublicationYear "2014" @default.
• W2129125433 type Work @default.
• W2129125433 sameAs 2129125433 @default.
• W2129125433 citedByCount "0" @default.
• W2129125433 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W2129125433 hasAuthorship W2129125433A5066486760 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C107038049 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C107993555 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C138921699 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C142362112 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C144024400 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C17744445 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C199539241 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C2778299913 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C2780226923 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConcept C94625758 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C107038049 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C107993555 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C138921699 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C142362112 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C144024400 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C17744445 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C199539241 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C2778299913 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C2780226923 @default.
• W2129125433 hasConceptScore W2129125433C94625758 @default.
• W2129125433 hasIssue "4" @default.
• W2129125433 hasLocation W21291254331 @default.
• W2129125433 hasOpenAccess W2129125433 @default.
• W2129125433 hasPrimaryLocation W21291254331 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W1985247501 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W2028961010 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W2041804288 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W2327490725 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W2902066356 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W2952320918 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W3192384817 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W4229612395 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W4247507317 @default.
• W2129125433 hasRelatedWork W4249054599 @default.
• W2129125433 hasVolume "16" @default.
• W2129125433 isParatext "false" @default.
• W2129125433 isRetracted "false" @default.
• W2129125433 magId "2129125433" @default.
• W2129125433 workType "article" @default.