Peter Stearns will deliver the convocation address at Centre College in Kentucky on March 31, 2016, on the topic of "Peace in History." From the college's announcement:
This convocation will be part of the visit by Dr. Peter N. Stearns, the Humana Scholar for the spring. Stearns is provost emeritus at George Mason University, editor of The Journal of Social History (a leading journal in the field of history), and the author or editor of over 30 books. The history of peace is hardly a common topic in world history. This talk will suggest some of the subjects such a history can undertake – such as the little-known flurry of peace movements in the early 19th-century, or the surprisingly complex issue of whether humans are “naturally” warlike. But we also must discuss whether a peace focus is hopelessly idealistic, given the obvious fact that to date all peace efforts have fallen short of the mark. The goal: let’s take a hardheaded look at the history of peace and discuss whether, and how much, conventional history should be changed to give peace a clearer place.
March 29, 2016