In December 2001, Kofi Annan and the United Nations organization received the Nobel Peace Prize; Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations, was recognized for his work "for a better organized and more peaceful world."

Nelson Mandela became the first president of South Africa elected by a fully representative democratic vote. His efforts to end the segregation that paralyzed his country resulted in his being awarded the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

A member of the indigenous Quiche Maya group, Rigoberta Menchu Tum experienced firsthand the oppression of the native Indian population in Guatemala. This new biography from the "Modern Peacemakers" series profiles the unwavering activist who was awarded the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her remarkable work promoting social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples. This title features full-color photographs, sidebars, and textboxes that help students follow Menchu Tum's journey from early struggles to subsequent triumphs and the prize.

Oscar Arias Sanchez was awarded the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the civil unrest raging in several Central American countries at that time. Then the president of Costa Rica, Sanchez was the main architect of the Esquipulas II Accords, a plan to promote democracy and peace in the region during a time of great turmoil and outside influence in the midst of the cold war. This in-depth biography, which traces Oscar Arias Sanchez's lifetime, his path to the prize, and his continuing efforts to promote progress in his homeland, is an inspirational tale that shows how hope and...

The 1978 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, prime minister of Israel, for their contributions to the Camp David Accords. These accords comprised two frame agreements on peace in the Middle East, and on peace between Egypt and Israel. The choice of these laureates, according to the Nobel Committee, was notable because never before had they considered it fitting "to award the Peace Prize to statesmen from the troubled and sadly devastated Middle East." A hotbed of conflict throughout history, the Middle East saw a significant increase in strife...

Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for their work to end the violence in Northern Ireland; their efforts were credited with reducing the conflict's death toll by half.

World-renowned writer, teacher, activist, and Chairman of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

Cleric and civil rights activist Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. The first black general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, Tutu preached tirelessly against apartheid and for reconciliation.

Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for his part in negotiating a cease-fire between North and South Vietnam and the subsequent U.S. withdrawal.

Mother Teresa is one of the most admired Nobel laureates of all time. Born in Eastern Europe of Albanian parents, she became a Catholic missionary nun in India when she was still a teenager. After teaching in a convent school in Calcutta for nearly two decades, in 1946 she claimed that she heard God calling her to live and work among "the poorest of the poor" in that city's slums. With the assistance of the religious order she founded, the Missionaries of Charity, over the next half-century Mother Teresa devoted herself to society's forgotten and unwanted, not only in India but in countries...