Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

Great Peacemakers: True Stories from Around the World by Ken Beller and Heather Chase highlights the lives of influential figures. The book covers a range of individuals, including Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Anderson Sá, Thich Nhat Hanh, Desmond Tutu, Riane Eisler, the Dalai Lama, Henry Salt, Albert Schweitzer, Astrid Lindgren, and Wangari Maathai. These figures demonstrated various approaches to peace, such as civil disobedience, environmental advocacy, and the promotion of social justice. Their collective efforts spanned issues like civil rights, environmental protection, nonviolence, and humanitarian work. Through their stories, the book illustrates the transformative power of peaceful resistance and the global impact of individuals committed to justice, equality, and compassion. Each person’s contributions continue to inspire movements for peace worldwide, and each chapter ends with a quote collection.

Great Peacemakers by Ken Beller and Heather Chase offers a thoughtful, accessible, and exhaustively researched anthology of profiles of remarkable individuals who shaped the course of peace and social justice. The writing is simple, clear, and straightforward, making even some of the more complicated areas easy to understand. The compilation of these figures is wonderfully detailed and I had a great time reading through it with my middle-grade child. Some we knew, like Albert Schweitzer and Wangari Maathai, and others were lesser-known peacemakers to us, and even new to me, such as Anderson Sá and Thich Nhat Hanh. While I am personally not in agreement with the legacy portrayals of Mother Teresa and Jane Goodall, what makes this book so incredible is that it does make you want to do a bit more independent digging. The book is an important resource. Overall, Great Peacemakers is a powerful reminder of the potential each person has to make a lasting difference in the world. Recommended.