Ad bellum purificandum. giving peace a (fighting) chance in American Studies

The essay argues for a critical redefinition of peace as an important concept in American Studies, especially at the time of the increasing internationalization of the field. Linking Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Peace" to Kenneth Burke's argument in favor of "the purification of war", the essay shows that there is an important though often neglected tradition in US culture that imagines peace not as the mere absence of war, but as an active, militant involvement in the practice of non-violence