IN SEARCH OF PEACE: The Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1901-1975

A dull, dutiful book about Alfred Nobel and the Peace Prize recipients through Sakharov's 1975 award. Drawing on her two out-of-print, late Fifties volumes on the same subjects, Meyer seems to have revised and updated the contents without breathing any life into them. Most of the figures emerge as rather bloodless, ah though the more notable winners--Nicholas Murray Butler and Jane Addams shared the 1931 prize--clearly make more interesting reading. Meyer is aiming for inspiration as well as instruction, and the lockstep structure of one Great Idealist after another quickly loses momentum. The reference information (Kissinger's challenged award, Le Duc Tho's refusal) is readily available but so are trite identifications: Schweitzer is tagged ""The Good Doctor of the Jungle."" Utilitarian, nothing more.