Nonkilling History: Shaping Policy with Lessons from the Past

The surprise insight from Nonkilling History is that what did not happen explains why humanity lives today. This turns upside down understanding of history as the story of the victory of righteous or reprehensible human violence in struggles to satisfy human aspirations, wants, and needs. In the introduction to nonkilling historiography that begins the present volume, editor Antony Adolf advances far beyond such common sense understanding. He establishes seminal methodology for establishing a new nonkilling science of history. Such a science will not only help to explain past to present human survival but will inform decisions, individual and collective, to promote future killing-free societies that sustain and celebrate human life. The invitation to explore nonkilling history in this volume will interest not only young and old scholars in history and other academic disciplines, but will surely invite nonkilling questions by general readers as well.