Westheimer Peace Symposium Speakers' Books

All Our Relations, Native Struggles for Land and Life

This non-fiction book by acclaimed Native environmental activist Winona LaDuke is a thoughtful and in-depth account of Native resistance to environmental and cultural degradation. Her unique understanding of Native ideas and people comes from many years of experience. Local Native activists sharing the struggle for survival deepen her analysis with inspiring testimonies. The following quote is taken from page 122: "There has always been an anti-Indian sentiment in America. Over time and with awareness and the arrival of new immigrants to serve as scapegoats, those sentiments have waned in segments of the population. In areas adjacent to and within Native communities, however, anti-Indian racism has often remained and at times flourished." Some of this racism has appeared in bumper stickers that read "Save A Deer, Shoot an Indian; Save a Walleye, Spear an Indian."

SALE! $8.00 (Winona LaDuke, South End Press, 1999.)
1999 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Brown: The Last Discovery of America

In his dazzling new memoir, Richard Rodriguez reflects on the color brown and the meaning of Hispanics to the lfie of American today. Rodrizuez argues that America has been brown since its inception-since the moment the African and the European met within the Indian eye. But more than simply a book about race, Brown is about America in the broadest sense-a look at what our country is, full of surprising observations by a writer who is a marvelous stylist as well as a trenchant observer and thinker.

Sale! $3.75 (Richard Rodriguez, Penguin Books, 2002.)
2006 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War

Kaplan forsees a host of terrors in the wake of the Cold War. Volatile new democracies in Eastern Europe, fierce tribalism in Africa, civil war and ethnic violence in the Near East, and widespread famine and disease - not to mention the brutal rift developing as wealthy nations reap the benefits of seemingly boundless technology while other parts of the world slide into chaos - are the issues Kaplan identifies as the most important for charting the future of geopolitics.

SALE! $6.00 ( Robert D. Kaplan, Vintage Books, 2000.)
2001 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Convicted in the Womb: One Man's Journey from Prisoner to Peacemaker

Once Carl Upchurch was an elementary-school dropout fighting for survival on the streets of South Philadelphia, a gang member wedded to a life of violence, a bank robber facing a future in federal penitentiaries. Now he is a respected community organizer and one of the most compelling and visionary leaders of the civil rights movement. Catapulted into the national spotlight following his organization of a summit that brought together the country's most notorious gangs, Upchurch has found himself in direct conflict with other African American civil rights leaders. This is his scathing critique of the established civil rights movement and his bold manifesto for solving the critical problems facing today's urban America. And this is his own unforgettable story - a moving tale of conversion, a timely, hard-hitting look at the reality of urban crime, gang warfare, and racial injustice from one who know firsthand what it is like.

Sale! $3.44 (Carl Upchurch, Bantam Books, 1996.)
2002 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Deadly Consequences: How Violence is Destroying Our Teenage Population & a Plan to Begin Solving the Problem

This book provides a way to comprehend the epidemic of violence that is decimating a generation of young men, especially young black men living in poverty, and offers concrete strategies to stem its tide. Saturated by distorted media images of violence, lacking nonviolent male role models, filled with rage and self-hatred, and surrounded by the brutal tactics of gangs and drug dealers, ghetto kids are learning before they even reach double digits to carry weapons - and to use them to settle even the most trivial of disputes. The solution? Make violence prevention a public health issue. Mount a public awareness campaign like that waged so successfully against smoking. Require emergency-room physicians to refer young men obviously at risk for violence to appropriate mental health agencies - and fund those agencies. Introduce an antiviolence curriculum in schools.

SALE! $7.50 (Deborah Prothrow-Stith, HarperPerennial, 1991.)
2000 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

The Farm Labor Movement in the Midwest

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee represents a social reform movement of migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the Midwest. The book documents the story of the FLOC and also examines processes in social change that directed the movement and helped the FLOC achieve its major goals. More than a history of the FLOC, it tells stories about people who challenged the poverty and powerlessness of their life as migrant workers. The contract that was negotiated in 1986 significantly changed the structure of agribusiness and instituted key reforms in American farm labor.

SALE! $3.99 (W.K.Barger and Ernesto M. Reza, University of Texas Press, 1994.) Introduction by Baldemar Velasquez, 1998 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Garbage Land: On The Secret of Trail of Trash

The wild adventure begins once our trash hits the can- as Elizabeth Royte boldly follows the things we’ve “disposed of “to their ultimate (and often surprising) destination. Melding science, travelogue, anthropology, and a strong dose of clearheaded analysis, Garbage Land reminds us that our decisions about consumption and waste have a very real impact.

Sale! $3.75 (Elizabeth Royte, Back Bay Publicaiton, 2005)
2007 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Hebron Journal: Stories of Nonviolent Peacemaking

Gish recorded a moving story of the turmoil and suffering of the Palestinian people, the agony experienced by Israelis, and a vision of hope and new possibilities of reconciliation between Jews, Muslims, and Christians. From 1995 to 2001, Gish lived with Muslim families, engaged in nonviolent actions with Israelis and Palestinians, and struggled to find creative responses to injustice. Selected excerpts from his journal tell of the Christian Peacemaker Teams work and vision of how small peacemaking groups can make a difference in violent conflicts.

Sale! $4.50 (Arthur G. Gish, Herald Press, 2001.)

Iraq: A Journey of Hope and Peace

Peggy Gish went to Iraq as an attempt to prevent war. But on March 20, 2003, the bombs began falling on Baghdad. In this book, she recounts the moving experiences of Christian Peacemaker Teams' work in Iraq, before, during, and after the 2003 war and occupation. Told as her personal account, Gish makes real the story of prisoner abuse, the character of the Iraqi people, and a passionate vision for peace.

Sale! $4.50 (Peggy Faw Gish, Herald Press, 2004.)

Kundalini Yoga

This is the first fully illustrated book on Kundalini Yoga—for everyone who wants to release tension, increase energy, and feel happy, healthy, and whole.

Sale! 3.75 (Shakta Kaur Khalsa and Gillian Emerson-Roberts, DK ADULT; 1st edition, Dec 1, 2000. Paperback.)
2007 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival

Each chapter of this book is introduced by a picture of a blindfolded woman, her hands barely lifting the flap of her kerchief. To prevent prisoners from communicating with and knowing each other, and more importantly, their captors, inmates were kept blindfolded at all times in the "Little School" which was a grim euphemism for the prison camp where the disappeared were tortured. These gauze blindfolds were continually slipping. Partnoy's revenge on her captors was to see, in minute detail, the ignored little particulars that marked her place in the Little School.

Sale! $3.74 (Alicia Partnoy, Midnight Editions, 1998.)

The Lorax

The Once-ler, the Lorax, Swomee-Swans, and Humming-Fish populate this classic children's story. With wonderful illustrations of Truffula Trees and Thneeds, Dr. Suess brings this cautionary environmental tale to life.

$14.95 (Dr. Suess, Random House, 1971. Hardcover.)
2003 Westheimer Theme

Making Peace Prevail: Preventing Violent Conflict in Macedonia

Ackermann offers the first in-depth account of how Macedonia - one of the few examples of successful preventive diplomacy - held onto peace during the violence breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Faced with ethnic tensions and the threat of the Bosnian war, this republic was spared the fate of Croatia and Bosnia. Ackermann furthers our understanding of the challenge in conflict prevention in multiethnic and newly democratized societies.

SALE! $3.15 (Alice Ackermann, Syracuse Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution, Syracuse University Press, 2000.)
2000 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth

This book converts the seemingly complex concepts of carrying capacity, sustainability, resource use, waste disposal, and more into a graphic form that everyone can grasp and utilize. It is a rich resource for teachers, students, and policy makers at all levels.

Sale! $4.49 (Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, New Society Publishers, 1996.)
Recommended by 2003 Westheimer Speaker Sister Paula Gonzalez

Patriotism Peace and Vietnam

"Peggy Hanna leads us into an antiwar movement beyond the one the media followed. Here in Springfield, Ohio, as elsewhere in small city America, patriotic moms and dads felt betrayed by the war and tried to stop it. A highlight of Hanna's story is her experience with a friend at the 1971 Paris Peace Talks and their reception at home afterward. This book is candidly, engagingly written - a good read. It is also a passionate plea for understanding, then and now." Charles Chatfield, professor emeritus, Wittenburg University, author of The American Peace Movement.

Sale! $2.98 (Peggy Hanna, Left to Write, 2003.)

Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

This book presents an alternative lifestyle plan - a worldwide mobilization to stabilize population and climate before these issues spiral out of control, presented in a workable blueprint that can be enacted now. This plan for sustaining economic progress worldwide provides an alternative to continuing environmental deterioration and eventual economic decline.

Sale! $3.99 (Lester R. Brown, W.W. Norton and Co., 2003.)
Recommended by 2003 Westheimer Speaker Sister Paula Gonzalez

Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America

In 1987, a group of ultra-Orthodox Jews opened a kosher slaughterhouse just outside Postville, Iowa (pop. 1,465) both reviving and dividing the town. The quiet, restrained Iowans were aghast at the Hasidic Jews who ignored the unwritten laws of Iowa behavior, and the Lubavitchers could not compromised the world of Postville. Ten years later, the town engineered a vote on what everyone agreed was a referendum: should these Jews stay? Award-winning journalist Stephen G. Bloom expertly documents the conflict and gains new perspective on the troubles haunting many American communities today.

Sale! $3.50 (Harvest Book Harcourt, Inc., 2000.)
2006 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American

African slaves in Haiti emancipated themselves from French rule in 1804 and created the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere. But they reinstituted slavery for the most vulnerable members of Haitian society - the children of the poor - by using them as unpaid servants to the wealthy. These children were - and still are - restavecs, a French term whose literal meaning of "staying with" disguises the unremitting labor, abuse, and denial of education that characterizes the children's lives. In this memoir, Jean-Robert Cadet recounts the harrowing story of his youth as a restavec, as well as his inspiring climb to middle-class American life.

Sale! $3.24 (Jean-Robert Cadet, University of Texas Press, 1998.)
2002 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

The Riverkeepers: Two Activists Fight to Reclaim Our Environment as a Basic Human Right

An impassioned firsthand account of two advocates who have taken on powerful corporate and government polluters to win back the Hudson River, this book also tells us how we too can fight for our fundamental right to enjoy our invaluable natural resources.

Sale! $3.24 (John Cronin and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., with a foreword by former Vice President Al Gore, Touchstone, 1999.)
2003 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Voices of Hope in the Struggle to Save the Planet

Written by two former Wilmington College professors, this book portrays the lives of individual women and men searching to give life to a new - or renewed - vision of humans' relationship to the earth. It is a compelling story for all who are deeply troubled by humanity's assault on the biosphere, and seek inspiration and guidance in the momentous struggle ahead to save ourselves and all other creatures.

Sale! $4.99 (Marjorie Hope and James Young, Apex Press, 2000.)
Recommended by 2003 Westheimer Speaker Sister Paula Gonzalez

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

As a veteran war correspondent, Christ Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Audi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated to war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.” Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting basic human desires. Mixing hard-nose realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.

Finalist of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.

Sale! $3.24 (Christ Hedges, Anchor Books, 2002.)
2005 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

Weapons in Space

"Karl Grossman has been the leading journalist unraveling the complexities and wickedness of the new Star Wars scenarios which would threaten all life on Earth with a new nuclear arms race. I strongly suggest that this book be read by all people who have some investment in the continuation of life on this planet." Helen Caldicott, president emeritus, Physicians for Social Responsibility

SALE! $3.50 (Karl Grossman, The Open Media Pamphlet Series, Seven Stories Press, 2001.) 2001 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker

The Weather Makers

This book helped bring the topic of global warming to national prominence. For the first time, a scientist has provided an accessible and comprehensive account of the history, current status, and future impact of climate change.

Sale! $3.75 (Tim Flannery, Atlantic Monthly Press, Jan 27, 2006. Paperback.)
2007 Westheimer Peace Symposium Speaker