If you grew up in New England, chances are you learned about King Philip’s War. Although there are few signs of this conflict on the surrounding landscape – you may see a marker commemorating a skirmish on a rural byway or in a town green – it has settled into our local consciousness as an event that was important in colonial history, although very few of us can remember why or how. Jill Lepore, a historian now teaching at Harvard, took on the task of sifting through the many stories of the War and the resulting book, The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity, makes a powerful argument about the influence of narrative on collective memory. By examining both the descriptions of the war produced by the English settlers, as well as the interpretations of those narratives that followed, she shows how King Philip’s War ultimately influenced the development of American identity.

Reviewed by:

Rachel Freed Rachel Freed provides mediation, facilitation and training services to individuals, groups and businesses. She specializes in multi-party cases, with a focus on workplace conflicts, structural/ communication issues in small organizations and elder/family decision-making. She received a M.A in Conflict Resolution from UMass-Boston in 1997.

Models and Maps for Analyzing, Diagnosing, and Resolving Conflict 

by Gary T. Furlong

The Conflict Resolution Toolbox: Models and Maps for Analyzing, Diagnosing, and Resolving Conflict, as the title suggests, was written to enable people to address and resolve a wide variety of conflicts. Written with the conflict resolution practitioner in mind, the book and its models apply well beyond professional practice.

Reviewed by:

Joshua Gordon Joshua Gordon is an experienced mediator, facilitator, educator, and organizational capability builder. He has developed creative organizational solutions to ensure competitive success for college and professional sports teams and leagues at the Sports Conflict Institute and teaches at the University of Oregon.

Resolving Workplace, Client, and Policy Disputes 

by Susan S. Raines

Conflict Management for Managers, Resolving Workplace, Client, and Policy Disputes by Susan S. Raines is more than a reference book for managers, future managers, and practitioners of the art and science of workplace conflict resolution through sound management and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques and best practices. It is also a companion and a teaching aide that should be at the ready, dog-eared, underlined, highlighted, overflowing with post- it notes, and marginalia. My copy certainly is. Reading this fine book is like having Professor Raines by your side as your teacher, coach, and counselor.

Reviewed by:

John C. Turley John C. Turley mediates for ReGroup Advisors. Prior to entering the profession, he worked in international sales for Sun Microsystems, Verizon, and Siemens. He received an MS from Creighton University’s Werner Institute for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution.

Dignity: The Essential Role It Plays In Resolving Conflict 

by Donna Hicks, PhD

The premise of Donna Hicks’s 2011 book, Dignity, is captured in the above quotation from Archbishop Tutu’s foreword to the book. Hicks uses what she calls “the Dignity Model” of conflict resolution – an approach that involves teaching people the value of honoring the role that dignity plays in all relationships. As she puts it:

Reviewed by:

Joy S. Rosenthal Joy Rosenthal is a family and divorce mediator and attorney in New York City. She currently serves as President of the Family and Divorce Council of Greater New York (FDMC), and has been a member of ACR since 2009. She blogs regularly on her website,www.joyrosenthal.com 

Stories from an Environmental Mediator 

by Lucy Moore

It’s not every day that I finish reading a book and feel compelled to write the author a thank you note. True, that’s partly because most of the books that I actually finish are novels written by dead people. More to the point is that I experienced Lucy Moore’s recently published collection of environmental mediation tales as such a generous and personal gift (“All these chapters–for me? You shouldn’thave!”) that it would have seemed uncouth not to convey my gratitude.

Reviewed by:

Elissa Tonkin Elissa Tonkin directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency New England Regional ADR Program in Boston. She is a member of ACR’s Environment & Public Policy Section. In addition, in her spare time, she has been mediating, facilitating, and writing unfinished stories for over 20 years. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Agency or the United States.

A Guidebook 

by Toran Hansen, PhD

As communities become more interrelated and relationships more complex, multi-layered challenges emerge which cannot be met effectively with one-dimensional solutions. In this environment, a conflict resolution practitioner may need to have knowledge of, and access to, a mix of available disciplines to both interpret and resolve wide-ranging conflicts.

The Generalist Approach to Conflict Resolution: A Guidebook by Toran Hansen, Ph.D., proposes to incorporate the role of “generalist” commonly found in social work into the traditionally specialized fields of conflict resolution and peace studies.

Reviewed by

Crystina Wyler, MA Crystina Wyler is the founder of The Artful Communicator, a firm specializing in developing communication and conflict management skills for individuals and organizations. She is completing a Ph.D. in Conflict Analysis & Resolution at Nova Southeastern University.