The Palace of Crystal: A World Without War

Front Cover
Arena books, 2007 - Political Science - 248 pages
War has blighted the security and happiness of humanity from time immemorial, but when two hundred years ago the colonies in North America broke away from British rule and established the United States, it was seen as a hopeful promise for the peoples of the world. A new democracy had been launched wherein all (or at least, the majority) were deemed to be created equal in respect of their rights, and were citizens and not subjects, in a land of self-confident individualism, which was not only free of the hereditary-based authoritarianism of the Old World, but more significantly, seemed destined to live at peace with the great nation states beyond their frontiers. It was a nation where government was minimised to ensure freedom in the spheres of commerce, religion, and private life, but the ideals of universal concord were not so easily to be achieved by either the efforts of this new people, or by the world at large.

From inside the book

Contents

Consequences
9
Chapter Two The Changing face of War
17
Chapter Three Stony Ground
29
Chapter Four The Scourge of War
38
Chapter Five The Emergence of Democracy
46
Chapter Six On the Inefficiency of Hierarchies
59
Chapter Seven The Cult of personality
70
Chapter Eight Rubber Stamp Democracies
76
Chapter Fourteen Our Need for a Führer
144
Chapter Fifteen The Man in the White Coat
154
The Palace of Crystal
160
Chapter Seventeen Work in Progress
169
Chapter Eighteen The Palace of Crystal
175
Chapter Nineteen Uniting the Nations
197
Chapter Twenty Fighting Terrorism
205
Chapter Twenty One Coping With Terror
215

PART
90
Chapter Ten How to Influence People
106
Chapter Eleven The Leader
113
Chapter Twelve Man and Superman
126
Chapter Thirteen View from the Top
138
Chapter Twenty Three Democracy in Action
225
Chapter Twenty Four The People versus the Mob
237
INDEX
247
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