The contributors to this book aim to present the main ideas of Albert Schweitzer in a concise and accessible form. The topics addressed include arms reduction and the nuclear threat, medicine and health care, ethics and human rights, and ecology and the environment. Contributors include Oscar Arias Sanchez, George Marshall, Jennifer Leaning, Norman Cousins, Homer Jack, Linus Pauling, Victor Sidel, Pearl Bailey, Benjamin Hooks, James Brabazon, Jane Goodall, and Robert Muller.
Albert Schweitzer was born into an Alsatian family which for generations had been devoted to religion, music, and education. His father and maternal grandfather were ministers; both of his grandfathers were talented organists; many of his relatives were persons of scholarly attainments.
Having decided to go to Africa as a medical missionary rather than as a pastor, Schweitzer in 1905 began the study of medicine at the University of Strasbourg. In 1913, having obtained his M.D. degree, he founded his hospital at Lambarene in French Equatorial Africa, but in 1917 he and his wife were sent to a French internment camp as prisoners of war. Released in 1918, Schweitzer spent the next six years in Europe, preaching in his old church, giving lectures and concerts.
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