is the recipient of the
2008 Montaigne Medal, which is a new award given as a part of the
annual Eric Hoffer Book Awards.
Eric Hoffer Book Awards are given annually to
books from independent presses that are felt to best reflect the
spirit of Eric Hoffer’s work. This year they added the Montaigne
Medal, stating that it is given to:
the most thought-provoking titles—books that
either illuminate, progress, or redirect thought. The Montaigne
Medal is given in honor of the French philosopher Michel de
Montaigne, who influenced people such as William Shakespeare,
René Descartes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Friedrich Nietasche,
Jean-Jacques Roussea, and Eric Hoffer.
,
edited by David Giffey, is a collaboration between the Madison
Veterans for Peace (Clarence Kailin Chapter) and Atwood
Publishing. It is a series of 19 interviews with veterans of wars
from the Spanish Civil War to the Iraq war. Interviewees discuss
their personal journeys and reflect the life-defining or
life-changing capacity of war. As Howard Zinn writes in his
foreword to the book:
These are veterans with a point of view whose
trajectories of belief had many different starting points, took
many different paths, but in every case let to an abhorrence of
war. ...anti-war feeling among veterans has not been given the
attention it deserves, and this volume is an attempt to correct
that imbalance.
Veterans for Peace member and long-time Atwood Publishing
supporter, Joseph Cammarano, was the catalyst for the
Long Shadows
project. Joey brought us all together and the book and DVD were
born. It is dedicated to his memory as he died just a few weeks
after being interviewed by David Giffey. He stated that he’d
shared experiences that he’d never talked about before and that
had given him a new peace.
Editor David Giffey notes:
This is a tribute to the veterans in the book
and to millions of veterans of all conflicts who struggled to
free themselves from the grip of militarism and worked for
peace.
The veterans' stories prove that change is not only possible,
but also necessary and life saving.
Click here to learn more about the
Eric Hoffer Award and
specifically the Montaigne
Medal.
Contact
information: For information regarding interviews or
discussion with the editor and contributors, contact David Giffey
at 608-753-2199 or publisher, Linda Babler at 608-242-7101 or
888-242-7101 or
lindab@atwoodpublishing.com.
To order the book and/or companion DVD, contact Atwood
Publishing, 888-242-7101 or click here.
