A Tenth Anniversary Edition of Voices from the Peace Corps: Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers
Voices from the Peace Corps Fifty Years of Kentucky Volunteers By Angene Wilson and Jack Wilson University Press of Kentucky Review by Steven Boyd Saum A decade ago, Angene and Jack Wilson published Voices from the Peace Corps. Now comes a tenth anniversary edition with a foreword by National Peace Corps Association President and CEO Glenn Blumhorst. This is a very different time. As the new edition was released in 2021, there were no Volunteers in service overseas. Some were serving across the U.S. in partnership with FEMA on community vaccination efforts; others were taking part in virtual volunteering with partners around the...
As a Child, She Fled Nazi Germany with Her Family. Two Decades After the War, She Was a Chemist Teaching at a University in Lagos with the Peace Corps.
My Years in the Early Peace Corps Nigeria, 1964–1965 (Volume 1) Ethiopia, 1965–1966 (Volume 2) By Sonja Krause Goodwin Hamilton Books Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum Sonja Krause Goodwin had already traveled far from home, earned a doctorate in chemistry, and worked for six years as a physical chemist when she joined the Peace Corps. Born in St. Gall, Switzerland, in August 1933, she had fled Nazi Germany with her family and resettled in Manhattan, where her parents opened a German bookstore. Sonja entered elementary school without speaking a word of English. Science is where she found her calling....
How People Experience Idealism, Why It Dies, and Why That Matters
The Death of Idealism Development and Anti-Politics in the Peace Corps By Meghan Elizabeth Kallman Columbia University Press Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum You might surmise from its title that this is not a book that casts the Peace Corps experience in a particularly rosy light. You would be right, sort of. But Meghan Elizabeth Kallman is not trying to argue that the Peace Corps is good or bad. Rather, she writes, “The questions of how people experience idealism, why it dies, and why that matters are the central puzzle of this book.” Kallman is an assistant professor at the School...
Michael E. O’Hanlon Has Counseled ‘Resolute Restraint’ in an Age of Peace. But Has That Age Come to an End?
The Art of War in an Age of Peace U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint By Michael E. O’Hanlon Yale University Press Reviewed by Steven Boyd Saum Published last year, Michael E. O’Hanlon’s most recent volume of strategy recommendations for U.S. global engagement has a title that’s been overtaken by events: In this “age of peace,” Russia has launched the largest invasion of another country since World War II. The gist of O’Hanlon’s counsel is “resolute restraint” with “an equal emphasis on both words.” That means avoiding overextension without retrenchment; either would make the world less stable and more...
A Collective Memoir of Peace Corps Libya
101 Arabian Tales How We All Persevered in Peace Corps Libya Edited by Randolph W. Hobler Lulu Books Reviewed by D.W. Jefferson Randy Hobler has taken on the herculean task of writing a comprehensive history of the Peace Corps in Libya, in the form of a collective memoir of 101 Volunteers. He interviewed as many Libya RPCVs as he could find and asked for journals and letters. The result is a collection of tales covering the brief span Volunteers served in Libya, from the training of Libya I to the termination of Libya III before they left their training...
More Nonfiction from the Book Locker
Under the Influence Putting Peer Pressure to Work By Robert Frank Princeton University Press Reviewed by NPCA Staff Robert H. Frank (Nepal 1966–68) is a pioneer and champion of behavioral economics, and in his many books, essays, and interviews he addresses moral sentiments, positional goods, expenditure cascades, the ever-widening income gap, the role of luck in our lives, and, most recently, the power of behavioral contagion. In Under the Influence, Frank tackles behavioral contagion, seeking to explain how to unlock the latent power of social context and harness it for good. Our environments encourage smoking, bullying, tax cheating, sexual predation,...
Applying Lessons Learned from Decades in Development
How to Improve the World Quickly By Chris Roesel Peace Corps Writers After Chris Roesel served as a Volunteer in Guatemala 1973–75, “how to help those most in need was the question that drove me,” he writes. The result, chronicled here, brings together analysis of and on-the-ground lessons learned from projects in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, including NPCA affiliate group TCP Global, which enables community-based microloans. Roesel is founder and president of P2P Inc., a nonprofit organization providing water, sanitation, hygiene, malaria elimination, and income improvement in Uganda. The organization was named a 2021 Top-Rated Nonprofit.
Peace Corps Achievements — January 2022
News and updates from the Peace Corps community — across the country, around the world, and spanning generations of returned Volunteers and staff. By Peter Deekle (Iran 1968–70) Photo courtesy CARE Diane Carazas is the new director for CARE in Latin America and the Caribbean, where efforts include supporting thousands of Haitians like Natacha (pictured) who lost her home in a devastating earthquake last year. Ruth Rosas is the first-ever dedicated, bilingual Latine Communities Reporter for a sustainable transportation news source in Chicago. Peter Riley was sworn in as the first Mission Director for USAID in Tajikistan. RPCVs appointed to leadership positions in local and international nonprofit organizations — and seeking to empower a diverse,...
Peace Corps Achievements — December 2021
News and updates from the Peace Corps community — across the country, around the world, and spanning generations of returned Volunteers and staff. By Peter Deekle (Iran 1968–70) Katrina Fotovat is appointed Senior Official to the Secretary of State in the Office of Global Women’s Issues. Dr. Patrick Gonzalez, Assistant Director for Climate and Biodiversity by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), helps lead efforts to combat climate change. Newly published books, such as Elana Hohl’s (pictured) collection of letters documenting her Peace Corps service. Recognizing gender equity public health initiatives. Expanding research on ocean sustainability. Have news to share with the Peace Corps community? Let...
Peace Corps Achievements — October 2021
News and updates from the Peace Corps community — across the country, around the world, and spanning generations of returned Volunteers and staff. By Peter Deekle (Iran 1968–70) Lisa Woodson (pictured) is working with Indigenous populations in the Amazon basin on health research. A new film produced by Bryn Mooser on the 2021 Refugee Olympic Team. Entrepreneurial success. Honoring an advocate for the land. Have news to share with the Peace Corps community? Let us know. AFGHANISTAN W. Brunhofer has recently released Dancing with Angels: Songs and Poems from the Millennium. The exploration of poetry is produced by Christian Faith Publishing. From Shakespeare to Yeats, Brunhofer explores favorite poems of inspiration...