Mead on international mindedness and the war to end war

Abstract

Recent scholarship has begun to transform the traditional view of Mead as a micro-sociological theorist unable to effectively conceptualize conflict, especially by returning to his writings articulated during and after World War I. Building on this emerging literature with the help of primary source documents, the article traces Mead’s personal experiences during the war, including his contentious break with other pacifists, the pressures he felt to contribute war service at home, the serious battlefield injury of his son, his official duties inspecting officer training curricula, and his founding role in postwar political forums. This enables us to contextualize the ideas Mead developed on political institutions, the individual’s social conscience, hostile impulses, nationalistic solidarity, institution building, and value-commitments in relation to the events that prompted his reflection. The early evaluations of Mead’s ideas on war and politics by his colleagues help us understand how his late work on the development of “international-mindedness” revealed prescient social conditions and dynamics of inter-group conflict.