Böcker utgivna av Peace Corps Writers

The summation of a distinguished career in writing fiction, writing for film, travel writing, and teaching, P.F. Kluge's WORDMAN is a source book for emerging writers and a memorable set of reflections upon a life spent as a journalist, author, and teacher. Kluge's service in the Peace Corps in the early 1960s provided an unexpected geographic focus that has accrued to a lifetime of novels and creative nonfiction.

A Legacy of America's Global Volunteerism: International Voluntary Services 1953-2002 explores the philosophical and organizational growth of international volunteerism. The book describes the International Voluntary Services, Inc. (IVS) innovative use of volunteers in relief and development projects and the challenges faced in both its public-private partnerships and field operations. Analysis of impacts and lessons from IVS's fifty-year lifespan may provide guidance for future international voluntary service institutions and programs. Volunteers' personal stories highlight issues inherent in international development and volunteerism. Section I, History of International Voluntary Services, Inc., covers events from the start of IVS in 1953 to its closure in 2002. Described are programs initiated by the U.S. Government and private organizations that engaged American volunteers in development and relief activities worldwide. Initially focused on sensitive areas of the Middle East and Indochina, IVS programs expanded and internationalized throughout the Global South. Section II, Volunteer Experiences And Impacts, describes the wide-ranging experiences of individual volunteers and the challenges of evaluating the impact of volunteer programs. Section III, International Voluntary Services Partners, identifies partnership programs ranging from "Peace Church" volunteer programs that inspired IVS, to recent U.S. Government volunteer initiatives, and the formation of the U. S. Peace Corps. Section IV, Implications and Questions for Future International Volunteerism, analyzes lessons learned from the IVS experience and their implications for future international volunteer activities. The author of the book's first chapter, entitled IVS Origins and Early Years, is a former Peace Corps volunteer; the following chapters were written by IVS alumni and professionals in the field of volunteerism who frame the IVS experience in the context of a broader international development picture. Individual volunteer stories throughout the book describe the challenges they faced and their wide-ranging successes and failures. The book highlights the dramatic changes throughout the world during the second half of the Twentieth Century and how these changes impacted international volunteerism. It concludes that international volunteerism remains relevant today, as reflected in the Peace Corps, which has had 241,000 volunteers serving in 143 countries since 1961.

When Jack Allison joined the Peace Corps in 1967, he never intended to write the number one hit song in Malawi or be described by Newsweek as more popular than Malawi''s own president. A poor Southern white boy with a deep love of music, Jack only wanted an answer to one burning question: Should he become a minister or a doctor?In the end, the answer Jack found was that he would choose medicine as a career. And, living in extreme circumstances in the world''s then-poorest country, he would find even more-that he had the inner resources that allowed him to not only thrive but give the best of what he had to those who needed it the most.

"The poems in Strange Beauty of the World invite readers to reflect on the ways the past impinges on the present, how events long ago continue to inform who we are now; to consider acts taken and not taken, and the way actions have unintended consequences; to bear witness to cruelty and injustice; to summon the creative imagination to resist the mundane, challenge the rehearsed response. In particular, they pay homage to beauty, and its weird, wonderful diversity and expression"--

Shrouded in secrecy and once closed off from the outside world by the Soviet Union, most Americans know very little about Kazakhstan. A Five Finger Feast tells the story of this beautiful place, its vast lands, blue skies, cold winters and hospitable people. Journey with author Tim Suchsland to places less traveled, like the vanishing Aral Sea and the mountain paradise of the Altyn Arashan. Be a guest at a mad tea party, infused with vodka and the sheep-head delicacy called beshbarmak. From 2007 to 2009, Suchsland served in Kazakhstan in the US Peace Corps-an institution at the heart and soul of what it means to be American. Through his story, Suchsland details the adventure of living abroad as a young American with its ups and downs, excitement and thrill. In A Five Finger Feast, he tells the story about growing up in a place far away from home. Featured on "Travel with Rick Steves" (Episode 764 - Aug. 17, 2024) Winner of the Moritz Thomsen Award for Best Book about the Peace Corps Experience (2023)

"In this fast-paced, fact-packed memoir of The Sixties, a veteran social activist recalls the idealism of the Kennedy Brothers' push for peace and how it shaped him and others to become peacemakers. With eloquent words the brothers laid out their peace agenda - from JFK's Inaugural call in 1960 to join the New Frontier to RFK's "End the War" Presidential Campaign of 1968. June of 1963, JFK's "Strategy of Peace" speech given in response to the nuclear-war standoff with Russia motivated a recently graduated UCLA couple to join the Peace Corps, and were sent to Peru. This richly informed memoir documents how these two Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs), and others, made a difference in U.S. international relations in ways that money could never buy. The emotional heart of this book is the emergence of RFK. Following his 1964 election to the U.S. Senate, he visited Peru and met with PCVs serving in both urban and rural locations. We learn how that trip influenced RFK's views on aiding the impoverished, and who caused the demise of JFK's billion-dollar assistance program for Latin America - The Alliance for Progress. Following their Peace Corps service, the couple from UCLA returned to Los Angeles. Seven months later, on June 23, 1967, they participated in LA's first anti-war march. The peaceful protest ended in a vicious police riot against the protestors that radicalized them. Many coalesced around Robert Kennedy's 1968 campaign for the Presidency, including our eyewitness activist, author Sweet William. We are introduced to the elements of social activism, and charismatic protest leaders. From this insightful history, we learn when Mexican Americans became Chicanos. We also learn that in Chimbote, Peru exactly what JFK had hoped Peace Corps Volunteers would accomplish happened - peasants were emboldened to become presidents. With eyewitness reports, excerpts of speeches, photos and more, JFK & RFK Made Me Do It: 1960 - 1968 has everything that is needed to become immersed in Sixties idealism. But alas, the Kennedy brothers' nighttime burials at Arlington Cemetery, the only veterans ever to be buried at night, put an end to their "strategy of peace.""--