Author
Heather's Books
Seeking Peace: The Quakers
Be Not Afraid: The Polish (R)evolution, "Solidarity."
Who Were the Whiteoaks and Where Was Jalna?
Mazo de la Roche: Rich and Famous Writer
Wacousta
Warsaw Spring
A Drop of Rain
Seeking Peace: The Quakers
by Heather Kirk
Who is the only person to have won an Olympic medal and a Nobel prize?
Philip Baker.
What kind of Olympic medal was it? Silver. Running. 1,500 metres. Antwerp. 1920.
What kind of Nobel prize was it? Peace. 1959.
What was Baker's religion?
Quaker.
The answers to many questions about the peace-loving Quakers can be found in a new publication by Canadian author, Heather Kirk.
The 272-page book, Seeking Peace: The Quakers, was published in Fall 2017 by Borealis Press of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The book is illustrated with almost 100 drawings, paintings, maps, and photographs.
Seeking Peace follows an earlier book by Kirk about another little-known, pacifist phenomenon, Poland's Solidarity uprising of the 1980's. That book was titled Be Not Afraid: The Polish (R)evolution, "Solidarity." It was published by Borealis in 2011 and received excellent reviews. (See the "Reviews" section of Kirk's website at www.heatherkirk.ca.)
The purpose of Seeking Peace is to introduce an "historic peace church" that is over 360 years old. The book is an exploration, not a hagiography. Critics' doubts are discussed.
Why is Kirk, best known for her books and articles on famous novelist Mazo de la Roche, writing about nonviolent-resistance movements that few have heard about?
"There are many nonfiction books about bloody wars," says Kirk, "but few about peaceful resolution of conflict. How can people learn to avoid war if they don't have interesting resources to explain how it has been done? And it has been done! The Poles and the Quakers and many others have done it-- even the Danes and the Mongolians. Gandhi, King, and Mandela are not exceptions now."
Seeking Peace is aimed at senior-high and freshman-college students as well as average, adult readers. Its style encourages skimming and scanning. The scholarly narrative is offered in short blocks separated by visual images as well as jokes, quotes, quizzes, questions, "geographies," mini biographies, brief dramatic scenes, timelines, and a song.
Poland's Solidarity movement was distinguished by the enormity and rapidity of its achievements. Without killing a single person, ten million people protested peacefully for ten years, thereby throwing off their communist rulers and helping bring down the Soviet Union.
Quakerism is impressive for the creativity and endurance of its so-called "peace testimony." This tiny sect, also known as the Friends or Religious Society of Friends, has accomplished astonishingly varied feats in its long existence.
While seeking peace among peoples, yesterday and today, Quakers have helped to promote religious liberty, to abolish slavery, to reform poor prison conditions, to improve mental hospitals, and to develop schools. All this and more without going to war.
Seeking Peace is a kaleidoscopic story made up of some of the many stories about what the Quakers have done--what they have stood for and even died for since they arose as a people in 17th-century England.
Now, can you name the "peculiar people" that helped create Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Oxfam? Hint: These people won the Nobel peace prize in 1947.
Heather Kirk in front of the Yonge Street
Meeting House, a continuous place of worship for Quakers for over 200 years. This historic site is located in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. 