Ceadel, Martin (Eric) 1948-

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CEADEL, Martin (Eric) 1948-

PERSONAL: Born January 28, 1948, in Cambridge, England; son of Eric Bertrand (a university librarian) and Pamela Mary (a homemaker; maiden name, Perkins) Ceadel; married Deborah Jane Stockton (a solicitor), July 27, 1974; children: Jack, Jemima, Dickon. Education: Oxford University, B.A. (with first class honors), 1969, M.A. and D.Phil., 1977.

ADDRESSES: Home—47 Bainton Rd., Oxford OX2 7AG, England. Office—New College, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3BN, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of Sussex, Brighton, England, lecturer in history, 1973-74; University of London, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, England, lecturer in history and politics, 1974-79; Oxford University, Oxford, England, Fellow of New College and tutor in politics, 1979—.

WRITINGS:

Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945: The Defining of a Faith, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1980.

Thinking about Peace and War, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1987.

The Origins of War Prevention: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1730-1854, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Semi-Detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Also author of Why People Disagree about War Prevention, Oxford Project for Peace Studies, 1989.

SIDELIGHTS: English historian Martin Ceadel once told CA: "I am not a pacifist of any kind, but I feel that the political debate about war prevention has received less attention than debate about domestic issues and that this should be remedied." Indeed, Ceadel has brought attention to the various movements for peace in Great Britain through his carefully researched books. He began with Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945: The Defining of a Faith, published in 1980, which covers the period from the beginning of World War I through the end of World War II. In Thinking about Peace and War, Ceadel develops a typology of peace movements, distinguishing between "pacific-ism," which refers to a desire to create a peaceful international order through reform but accepts the use of military force for defense, and "pacifism," which rejects all forms of military force.

Ceadel's The Origins of War Prevention begins following British peace movements from 1730 and continues to the Crimean War in 1854. He makes thorough use of the records of the Peace Society, founded in 1816. In part one, Ceadel discusses how the idea was developed that peace can be achieved between nations. In part two, he traces the course of Britain's peace movement from the 1790s, discussing the contribution of such groups as the Quakers and such individuals as politicians Richard Cobden and John Bright, who, says Ceadel, were not as involved in the movement as once believed. Donald Read, writing in the English Historical Review, observed: "In Britain more than anywhere else public opinion had accepted that discussion of peace-or-war was a legitimate part of the political debate." Ceadel's book, he said, "based upon a comprehensive range of archive and printed material, explains with commendable care how and why this breakthrough had been achieved by the mid-nineteenth century."

Ceadel's Semi-Detached Idealists picks up where The Origins of War Prevention leaves off and continues through the end of World War II. The book is a comprehensive and authoritative study of British efforts to abolish war. In an article for the Times Literary Supplement, T. G. Otte explained the book's title: "As Ceadel demonstrates persuasively in this cogently argued work, the country's geography, the absence of major domestic upheavals, the strength of religious dissent as well as of free-trade liberalism helped to foster an intellectual and political climate in which the advocates of an 'idealist[ic]' approach to international politics could establish their organizational presence."

Ceadel assumes that peace movements are more an expression of the activists' ideology than they are a vehicle for social change. Otte praised Ceadel's "painstaking and meticulous archival research," especially into the pamphlet literature of the periods he discusses. This research helped the author to pull apart the strands of ideology and detail their interaction. Ceadel follows the individuals and organizations that made their movements work, especially during the interwar years, when peace movements were at their height. He also explains how Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and World War II discredited much of the ideology behind the peace movement. Ceadel calls the real achievement of Britain's early-twentieth-century peace movement the ongoing "intellectual conversation" it created about war and its causes. Otte concluded, "The peace movement was the grit in the machinery; and perhaps all machinery ought to have some grit in it, even if only to ensure its regular inspection."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, summer, 1997, review of The Origins of War Prevention: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1730-1854, p. 315.

American Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals, July, 1981, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945: The Defining of a Faith, p. 179.

American Political Science Review, December, 2001, review of Semi-Detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945, p. 1030.

British Book News, August, 1987, review of Thinking about Peace and War, p. 504; September, 1987, review of Thinking about Peace and War, p. 587.

Choice, April, 1981, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 1151; April, 1988, review of Thinking about Peace and War, p. 1308; May, 1995, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 1408; January, 1997, review of The Origins of War Prevention, p. 766.

Economist, October 11, 1980, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 115.

English Historical Review, July, 1982, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 672; April, 1998, Donald Read, review of The Origins of War Prevention, p. 488.

Guardian Weekly, September 28, 1980, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 21.

Historian, February, 1982, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 253.

History: Reviews of New Books, March, 1981, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 120.

International History Review, June, 2002, Peter Brock, review of Semi-Detached Idealists, p. 425.

Journal of Modern History, June, 1982, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 362.

London Review of Books, August 20, 1998, review of The Origins of War Prevention, p. 20.

Spectator (London, England), October 4, 1980, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 22.

Times Educational Supplement, September 12, 1980, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 20.

Times Literary Supplement, August 8, 1980, review of Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945, p. 887; January 29, 1988, review of Thinking about Peace and War, p. 105; April 5, 2002, T. G. Otte, "An English Affliction," review of Semi-Detached Idealists, p. 21.