Book excerpt: This book includes the diverse personal histories of some of the founders, institutionalizers, and leaders of change in the filed of conflict resolution. The authors of the essays in this book play a variety of roles: mediator, facilitator, arbitrator, ombuds, academic, system designer, entrepreneur, leaders of public and private conflict resolution organizations, researcher, advocate for conflict resolution and critic of conflict resolution. The narratives of the contributors provide a way to understand the conflict resolution field and its principles.