Reflections on War and Peace and the Constitution

By (author) George Anastaplo

Not available to order

Publication date:

21 October 2014

Length of book:

334 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739193280

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

The attitudes and assumptions of different cultures and historical periods toward war and the maintenance of peace are reviewed by recalling authors who include Euripides, Sophocles, Plato, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Hobbes, and Zola. The challenges of war, peace, and national security for and by Americans are examined, and documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of 1787. The lives and thought of eminent Americans are also recalled (including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt), as well as the challenges posed by incidents such as the Dreyfus Affair and monstrosities such as the Second World War Holocaust. The Appendixes reinforce these inquiries by providing critical documents in American history and interviews with a Holocaust survivor.

Part One

War & Peace in the Bible
Who Were the Greeks—and Why Do They Matter?
Sedition in Wartime: Thersites and the Trojan War
Justice and Nobility: The Problem of Antigone
War & Peace and Socratic Constitutionalism
On Law For and Among Peoples
On the Projection of Force to the Other Side of the World
Victory, Defeat, and National Morale
William Shakespeare and the Uncomfortable Facts of War
War & Peace and the Declaration of Independence
The War Power and the Constitution
The Organic Laws of the United States
On Deliberation and War

Part Two

The Separation of Powers
The Risks and Rewards of Civil War
The Dreyfus Affair and the War Power
The Great War—A Monumental Folly
Woodrow Wilson and His Fourteen Points
On the Defense of the Allied Policy for Bombing German Cities

(1944–1945)

The Presidency, Especially in Time of War
Congress, the President and the Constitution in Wartime
September Eleventh: On Diagnosing an Addiction
The Prospects and Perils of Homeland Security
Freedom of Speech in “Wartime”
Fearfulness and the Search for an Elusive “Security”
Philosophy and the Prospects at Death

Appendixes
A.The Declaration of Independence (1776)
B.The United States Constitution (1787)
C.The Amendments to the United States Constitution (1791–1992)
Introduction to Appendices D, E, and F
D.Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
E.Are You Listening?
F.I Can’t Figure It Out to This Day