Merle Curti and the Development of Peace History

Although the late Merle Curti is best known for his contributions to the fields of American intellectual and social history, he was also the leading figure in the development of peace history. Committed to the attainment of world peace, he was the first prominent American historian to orient his scholarship toward this goal and to encourage others to undertake peace research. He and his associates played a key role in the founding of the Conference on Peace Research in History, an organization which he subsequently led and to which he continued to lend his support. In this fashion, Curti became the most important intellectual to mobilize historians for a world without war.