Individual presentation:
• Peter W. Petschauer:
War AND Peace
(60 min)

Abstract:

In the past, kings and emperors in Western societies before the American, French, and 1848/49 revolutions had a different relationship with war and peace than many leaders since. After these unwelcome revolutionary intrusions into their “freedom of action,” many rulers compromised with parliaments for at least a century. Recently, however, strongmen like Mussolini, Franco, Stalin, and Hitler retook the option to make war with popular and legislative support. Rather than ask: Are human beings violent? The question for this presentation is: Who encourages war? And why was that encouragement successful?

It was expected of rulers that they would expand their territories through marriages, purchases and/or war. Whether the population of their territories supported or opposed these activities was rarely discussed or even seriously considered. But leaders could count on adults to treat any “enemies” as they had been treated before and after birth.

At the same time, lyricists sang praises to war-making kings as early as Gilgamesh and Homer. Historians followed the lead and praised them as well, among them e.g., Ranke and Kliuchevsky, thus encouraging further atrocities.

For potential rulers, several negative realities followed their births: As the firstborn and as boys, they were often the chosen and opportunistic educators, and later supplicant advisors felt the “need” to accommodate their wishes for success in the fields of battle. A few pertinent examples are Ivan the Terrible, Henry VIII, Louis XIV, Peter I of Russia, Frederick II of Prussia, and Wilhelm II of Germany.

Simultaneously, most households farmed until the early 19th century, and public support must thus be sought in their connected early and later lives. They too lived through negative pre-natal and early childhood experiences, and the oldest sons knew they were the chosen; later in life they too tried to expand their farms through marriages and aggressive behavior toward neighbors.

Neither the restraints on monarchs and dictators would have come about if it had not been for urbanization and industrialization. Smaller households in cities, and later in agriculture, meant fewer children to whom parents and caretakers paid closer attention.

It is my view that kings and dictators unleashed wars that directed the generally suppressed negative outcomes of poor pre-natal and early childhood situations of most adults into slaughters called war. A turn came when childrearing modes took hold in the twentieth century (Lloyd deMause) and, more recently, with a better understanding of pre-natal circumstances (Ludwig Janus). DeMause spoke of the potential for love; also, most recently, the care of each child in turn brought insight into their experiences before they were born (Janus, Ihanus, Kruse, Schindler). The quest to participate in political decisions rests squarely with each person having the right to be seen and heard by parents and leaders (Hayak).

Keywords: childrearing, dictators, monarchs, prenatal trauma, psychohistory, rulers, urbanization, war

Short Bio:

Peter W. Petschauer, PhD, New York University, taught at Appalachian State University, 1968 – 2006. Initially taught courses in European and Russian History, later women and children. Now, he is a writer and poet, also a board member of two arts-related boards at ASU, and on two boards of psychohistorical journals. Dr. Petschauer is the author of Was man so Alles lernt (All the Things one Learns, 2023); Listen to Rarely Heard Voices (book of poetry, 2022); An Immigrant in the 1960s. Finding Hope and Success in New York City; Hopes and Fears: Past and Present (poetry); A Perfect Portrait (about a young female artist in 18th-century Weimar); In the Face of Evil. The Sustenance of Traditions; The Father and the SS. He is also the author of over 250 articles in journals and collections, and several hundred presentations/ lectures. He can be reached at peterpetschauer.com.