THE BEST WEAPON FOR PEACE: MARIA MONTESSORI, EDUCATION, AND CHILDREN’S RIGHTS (GEORGE L. MOSSE SERIES IN THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN CULTURE, SEXUALITY, AND IDEAS)
Book ID/图书代码： 13570026C00001
English Summary/英文概要： The Italian educator and physician Maria Montessori (1870–1952) is best known for the teaching method that bears her name. She was also a lifelong pacifist, although historians tend to consider her writings on this topic as secondary to her pedagogy. In The Best Weapon for Peace, Erica Moretti reframes Montessori’s pacifism as the foundation for her educational activism, emphasizing her vision of the classroom as a gateway to reshaping society. Montessori education offers a child-centered learning environment that cultivates students’ development as peaceful, curious, and resilient adults opposed to war and invested in societal reform.
Using newly discovered primary sources, Moretti examines Montessori’s lifelong pacifist work, including her ultimately unsuccessful push for the creation of the White Cross, a humanitarian organization for war-affected children. Moretti shows that Montessori’s educational theories and practices would come to define chilren’s rights once adopted by influential international organizations, including the United Nations. She uncovers the significance of Montessori’s evolving philosophy of peace and early childhood education within broader conversations about internationalism and humanitarianism.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 意大利教育家兼医生玛丽亚·蒙台梭利/蒙特梭利（1870–1952）最为人所知的是以她名字命名的教学方法。她同时也是一位终身的和平主义者，尽管历史学家通常认为她在这个主题上的著述相较于其教育学思想而言处于次要地位。在《和平的最佳武器》一书中，埃丽卡·莫雷蒂将蒙台梭利的和平主义重新定位为其教育行动主义的基础，强调她将课堂视为重塑社会的入口这一理念。蒙台梭利教育提供一种以儿童为中心的学习环境，培养学生成长为热爱和平、充满好奇心且具备韧性的成人，反对战争，并积极投身于社会改革。
通过运用新近发现的一手资料，莫雷蒂考察了蒙台梭利毕生的和平主义实践，包括她为建立“白十字会”（一个为受战争影响儿童提供人道主义援助的组织）所做的努力。 尽管这一倡议最终未能实现。莫雷蒂指出，蒙台梭利的教育理论与实践在被包括联合国在内的重要国际组织采纳后，逐渐成为界定儿童权利的重要基础。她揭示了蒙台梭利不断发展的和平哲学与幼儿教育理念，在更广泛的国际主义与人道主义讨论中的重要意义。
Awards/获奖情况：Review
“Innovative and extremely well-documented. This volume reframes the life and work of Maria Montessori within the context of international peace studies. She deserves recognition as a pioneer who faced gender barriers and nevertheless almost won the Nobel Peace Prize. Moretti gracefully weaves portraits of historical topics into this narrative of Montessori’s intellectual life.”—Mary Gibson, John Jay College and the Graduate Center–CUNY
“More than just a fascinating account of the life and groundbreaking thought of Maria Montessori, this scrupulously researched book sheds new light on her humanitarianism, feminism, and environmentalism, all contextualized in a transnational framework. It will inspire readers from a variety of disciplines interested in education and peace.”—Lorenzo Benadusi, author of The Enemy of the New Man: Homosexuality in Fascist Italy
“A monumental intellectual history of Montessori’s pacifism [that] places Montessori as a central figure in 20th-century global humanitarianism, disaster relief, peace activism, and social reform. . . . Moretti’s retelling shows us Montessori in action—engaging with Italian and global leaders, including the Pope, Mahatma Gandhi, Rukmini Devi, and Benito Mussolini, and existing in contradictory states of radical vision and political compromise.”—Mira Debs, Montessori Life
“Combines intellectual history, biography, and political theory to alter our understanding of Maria Montessori’s life and legacy. Moretti draws on extensive archival research and on readings of the broad range of Montessori’s lectures, letters, lesson plans, and published writings to recast the celebrated educational reformer as a theorist of peace. In an era of catastrophic geopolitical conflict, teaching became a means to work toward peace on a global scale. For decades, Moretti argues, this vision sustained Montessori’s far-flung pedagogical projects. To ignore the central place of pacifism in these projects is to miss a crucial dimension of Montessori’s work.”—Annali d’Italianistica
“An impressively researched, exceptionally well written, and deftly presented biography.”—Midwest Book Review
About the Author/作者介绍： Erica Moretti is an associate professor of Italian at the Fashion Institute of Technology–SUNY and the Millicent Mercer Johnsen/National Endowment for the Humanities Rome Prize Fellow.
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