Sulla "storia della pace"

Abstract

The author examines the evolution of «Peace History» as a distinct field of research (its birth in the ‘60s and ‘70s, its growth in the ‘80s and its ultimate success with the end of the Cold War) in the USA, in Germany, in Great Britain, in France and, at last, in Italy. Many of peace historians’ books are scholarly written, stimulating and well documented. The majority of them, however, remains still far too parochial in perspective and shows an open militant attitude inclined to condemn war history and to separate it from peace history. Further, as a result of their tight connection with «peace research», peace historians lean often towards theoretical frameworks, as in the cases of their use of categories like «pacifism» and «pacificism» which are proposed not as historically based but as timeless experiences (even if they depend in most cases only on value judgements, like a short history of the words themselves may prove). The author argues that peace history has to grow not as a separated history but as a field of research deeply connected with history of society, history of war, history of mass politics.