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writing that includes the early, home or educational influences and their major contributions prior to their areas that led to the Peace Award. The biographical essays are wonderful for weaving together personal motivations with a life of peace action.  For the pedantic among us, Abrams includes 5 to 20+ references to other Primary and Secondary Sources and, of course, their Nobel Lecture.  Abrams has interviewed personally 20 of the 87 individual winners, and has conducted considerable research at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, the host for the Nobel Prize (see his 4 introductory and very descriptive chapters); their personal quotes add to the text and amplify on their personalities.

The Nobel Prize Awardees came from 32 different countries. 

For young people, Martin Luther King (1964) was only 27 years old when he became President of the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1958 that led the Montgomery bus boycott.  What are the personal factors that led to his later major roles?  See this chapter.

There are 10 women who became Peace Laureates. How many have heard of Aung San Sun Kyi (1991 - Burma), the fearless woman who at age 45 returned to her native Burma to lead the National League of Democracy in opposing the then ruling vicious military government?  Her challenges to the Army was shared by many Burmese, but led to her 6 years of prison and house arrest, the spatial loss of her two children and beloved husband for an even longer time, and blocked her from presenting the Nobel Peace Lecture in Norway. 

Some 20 separate Peace Awards have been designated for Institutions and Associations, i.e., AFSC and FSC, UNICEF, Amnesty International , International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War , Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and its founder Joseph Rotblatt, International Campaign to Ban Landmines and its leader Jody Williams, and others.  Yes, each of us may know something about each group, but here 
Book Review on Nobel Peace Prize Recipients
By Robert L. Wixom

With the background of Friends Peace Testimony, individual Friends and Friends Meetings have many books on the religious basis for peace, the role of Friends in peace-making and the growth of non-violence in peace and social movements.  However, a new book that emphasizes the necessity of individuals in peace-making has arrived, namely:

Abrams, Irwin (2001 - Ed. 2), The Nobel Peace Prize and the Laureates - An Illustrated Biographical History (1901-2001), 350 pp., Science History Publications (Watson Publishing International, P.O. Box 1390, Nantucket, MA 02554-1390, (available from FGC Bookstore @ $35.00).

Irwin Abrams, a long-time Quaker from Ohio Yearly Meeting and Emeritus Professor of History at Antioch College, Ohio, has written a thorough book on the 107 Nobel Peace Prize Winners, their lives, their stories, their motivation and, in my mind most importantly, the historical context of their contributions.  While these Awardees are listed chronologically, a key Appendix groups them by Category: