ABSTRACT
The title of this prelude comes from Suzanne Stiver Lie, Lynda Malik, Ilvi Jõe-Cannon and Ruth Hinrikus, eds, Carrying Linda’s Stones: An Anthology of Estonian Women’s Life Stories (Tallinn: Tallinn University Press, 2006). The narratives in that collection demonstrate the significance of war and similar disruptions that punctuated the twentieth century. War wove through much of the century; while women’s voices were employed to encourage their men and promote the interests of nation, other voices argued for peace, from Austrian Bertha von Suttner, with whom the section opens, to women at Britain’s Greenham Common. Briefly employed by Alfred Nobel, Suttner has been credited with encouraging him to establish the Peace Prize, so it was fitting that she became the first woman to be honoured with it for her long-standing work for peace, highlighted by her successful novel, Die Waffen nieder! [Lay Down Your Arms!] (1889). Her acceptance speech captures her pacifist commitment.
