Amitai Etzioni, one of the world's foremost sociologists, fled Nazi Germany as a child and ended up a commando in the Israeli war for independence. The experience made him a person of peace.
"There is nothing more horrifying than either killing people, which I did, or seeing your friends killed," he said. "The worst thing you can get into are wars like we have now in Iraq."
"No one can understand American history without understanding slavery," says James O. Horton, an expert on black history.
(Photo Claire Duggan -- Georgetown University)
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"A Diary of a Commando Soldier," the first of Etzioni's 24 books, chronicled the violence he saw as a young man and argued that "there is nothing glorious about war."
Etzioni is the founder of the Communitarian Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to shoring up the moral, social and political foundations of society. His most recent book, "From Empire to Community: A New Approach to International Relations," says the world would be better off if people acted as if they are part of one community.
"We are not simply individual citizens or economic creatures who have self-interests," he said. "We have not just rights but also obligations to our family and country and even the global community."
Etzioni's career has included both teaching and government service. He was a White House adviser during part of the Carter administration. In 1980, he was named GW's first University Professor. This "super rank" faculty post allows him to teach the same subject, social theory, in one class each semester that is open to anyone in the university community.
A resident of Foggy Bottom, Etzioni, 76, got his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley. He likes to spend his free time with his five sons and six grandchildren.
James O. Horton, the Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History, has been on the GW faculty since 1977 and is a leading authority on African American and social history.
In nine books, most of them written with his wife, Lois, also a history professor, he has explored the stories of African Americans and the impact of slavery on the nation.
"No one can understand American history without understanding slavery and the attempt to rationalize that institution," Horton said. "A nation announces that it will be built on a fundamental belief in human freedom, and the exact same people are slaveholders. You've got a lot of explaining to do."
Trying to resolve that basic contradiction in American history, Horton argues, "was a major part of building what we now call American culture."
Horton is one of two historians appointed by President Bill Clinton to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He is a past historical adviser for Arena Stage and once worked with the National Park Service, using the latest scholarship to change or expand exhibits and presentations.
He has been a consultant to and appeared in many film and video productions, including a PBS series, "Slavery and the Making of America," that will air in February, for which he and his wife wrote the companion book.
His interest in African American history was driven, Horton said, by growing up during the civil rights movement and "the waning years of legalized segregation."
In his graduate-level course in public history, he teaches the history of "America's majority," Native Americans, African Americans, women and immigrants. He continues to teach the class while he is on leave this year to serve as president of the Organization of American Historians.
"I love history. It helps you understand the society in which you live, the people you live with and the historical context," he said. "I sometimes tell my students: Figure out what you would do if you were independently wealthy, and that's the occupation you should pursue."
Horton, 61, earned his doctorate at Brandeis University. He lives in Reston.
