The peace script : framing violence in US anti-war dissent / Dominic J. Manthey.

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The peace script : framing violence in US anti-war dissent / Dominic J. Manthey.

9780817395742 (ebook)
0817395741
9780817322465 (cloth)
9780817362188 (paperback)
0817322469
0817362185

Tuscaloosa : The University of Alabama Press, [2025]

English

1 online resource.

P301.5.P67

LAN015000 HIS036000

327.1/72014

"In The Peace Script: Reframing Violence in U.S. Anti-War Dissent, Dominic J. Manthey argues that anti-war movements, while petitioning for peace, often compose new justifications for violence. To best show the nature of this discursive labor, he proposes the term "peace script," a part-rhetorical, part-historical concept to interpret and compare the symbolic construction of anti-war discourse. The peace script acts as a sort of topos (or rhetorical theme) across time and place, which is present whenever people voice opposition to violence-real or perceived-to others. Manthey argues that these scripts, as public texts, help fellow citizens rehearse a version of peace by dramatizing society through protagonists, antagonists, motives, themes, and a plot, all designed to end violence and, presumably, to bring harmony to the world. To better analyze this process, he directs attention to grassroots protests and addresses the rhetoric of anti-war movements during major U.S. conflicts. Manthey also suggests that by invoking concepts such as civility, harmony, and nonaggression, anti-war movements give new expression to exclusionary ideas of race, gender, and class. However, it should be emphasized that Manthey's criticism of violent peace rhetoric does not equate to a dismissal of the work of peace advocates or an attack on the goal of peace itself-quite the opposite. Those who foster a democratic, inclusive, and equitable vision of peace are doing enormously difficult work. But by considering the shortfalls of prominent peace arguments in U.S. history, which is Manthey's focus, he posits that we can better understand when someone argues for peace well, and the damage that can be done by arguing for peace poorly. This book strives to appreciate such rhetorical labor-in addition to the social, political, and financial sacrifices-required to persuade people not only to oppose the violence typical of warfare but also to unite and build a sustainable future free from needless conflict and inequality. Manthey's analysis of protest rhetoric-ranging from speeches to newsletters to documentaries-illustrates how the study of grassroots activism is key to understanding how U.S. warfare is tied to debates about culture and national identity. Specifically, he focuses on five organizations across five major wars, asking in each case how anti-war activists mined cultural resources to call for peace while justifying violence anew. Manthey's integration of archival material sharpens his historical focus, considering how a specific conflict interacted with regional, national, and international contexts in often unpredictable ways. Among the archives that Manthey draws from are the Swarthmore Peace Collection, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the University of Kansas, and the Loyola University of Chicago. He also pulls from digitally available texts that represent each organization's argumentative work. By analyzing understudied episodes of dissent, such as the Copperhead movement during the U.S. Civil War, the Henry Ford Peace Expedition during World War I, and the Mothers' Movement during World War II, Manthey calls for public address scholars to better account for how marginalized identities are implicated in the history of public discourse. Ultimately, The Peace Script fills a critical gap in scholarship on war rhetoric, enhancing our understanding of protest discourse by examining grassroots actors who oppose armed conflict and by reimagining war itself, assessing peace in all its investments in whiteness, masculinity, and exclusionary definitions of citizenship"-- Provided by publisher.
"Manthey's analysis of protest rhetoric-ranging from speeches to newsletters to documentaries-illustrates how the study of grassroots activism is key to understanding how U.S. warfare is tied to debates about culture and national identity"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Rhetoric, culture, and social critique.

Peace script
Original 0817362185

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