Charles F. Howlett – författare

Ekirch Festschrift: Essays in Honor of a Historian of Ideas in American History is a collection of writings by former students, colleagues, and teachers.

This work recognizes the scholarly achievement of Arthur A. Ekirch, Jr., who for many years taught American history at both American University and the State University of New York at Albany. A pacifist during World War II, who served in Civilian Public Service Camps, Ekirch achieved academic notoriety for his popular book The Decline of American Liberalism, which remained on the History Book Club Selection for many months. During his long and distinguished teaching career, Ekirch authored and edited ten books in the field of American history.

A committed liberal and individualist, Ekirch was admired by his students for his encyclopedic knowledge and wit. The significance of this collection of scholarly articles and reminiscences is that the topics in this volume cover a wide range of information involving social ideas on civil liberties, people and ideas, comparative history and brief reflections from former students, including his Columbia University professor and Pulitzer Prize winning historian, Merle Curti.

Among the contributors to this volume are prize winning historians Walter Rundell, University of Maryland, Fred Somkin, Cornell University, Paul Scheips, U.S. Army Military History Center, and Donald R. McCoy, University of Kansas. Other contributors also include the nation’s first African American archivist at the National Archives, one of the first African American females to serve as a vice president at Howard University, and one of the first female presidents of the University of Massachusetts at Boston—all former students of Ekirch.

This work was a private collection given to Ekirch shortly before his retirement from teaching in 1984. In addition, there is a comprehensive curriculum vitae of his published works, awards, papers presented, and book reviews. A newly revised preface is included in this IAP edition.

This new edition of Nicholas Murray Butler''s The International Mind marks the 100th anniversary of its publication. Widely read at the time, it has reached the status of classic work. Butler is one of the 20th Century’s most famous college presidents. He transformed Columbia University into a famous research institution of higher learning. More importantly, this work still has an important message for today’s readers: how can we establish an international mind that builds a lasting peace for the world. This work is based on Butler’s famous speeches as president of the Lake Mohonk Conferences on International Arbitration, which took place just prior to the start of World War 1. Butler was a strong proponent of judicial internationalism and education as the mechanism through which the settlement of disputes between nations could be resolved. As head of the just-established Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Division of Intercourse and Education, Butler put forth his own views on international understanding. Later, Butler would become president of Carnegie’s Peace Endowment and was most responsible for helping to bring forth the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of national policy. In 1931, based on his efforts for world peace, which began at Lake Mohonk (NY), Butler shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jane Addams.

This new edition has a scholarly introduction as well as an extensive bibliographic essay on American Peace Writings by Charles F Howlett. An added feature to this new edition is a listing of Butler’s most notable works, the platforms of the 1907 & 1912 Lake Mohonk Conferences, and an lengthy 1914 interview with Butler by New York Times reporter, Edward Marshall. Readers will find the appendices an added bonus to a now classic work.

This new edition of Butler’s important book will bring to light one of the early 20th century peace classics devoted to the study of international arbitration. It offers a clear and compelling argument as to the importance of internationalism as proposed by some of the more prominent educational leaders, statesmen, and jurists of the pre-World War 1 period. Most importantly, reissuing this work in its one hundredth anniversary year bears testimony to its lasting importance since Butler’s efforts and those at the Lake Mohonk Conferences on International Arbitration led to the creation of a Permanent Court of International Justice only a few years after the conclusion of the First World War.