After serving in the Vietnam War, S. Brian Willson became a radical, nonviolent peace protester and pacifist, and this memoir details the drastic governmental and social change he has spent his life fighting for. Chronicling his personal struggle with a government he believes to be unjust, Willson sheds light on the various incarnations of his protests of the U.S. government, including the refusal to pay taxes, public fasting, and, most famously, public obstruction. On September 1, 1987, Willson was run over by a U.S. government munitions train during a nonviolent blocking action in which he expected to be removed from the tracks. Providing a full look into the tragic event, Willson, who lost his legs in the incident, discusses how the subsequent publicity propelled his cause toward the national consciousness. Now, 23 years later, Willson tells his story of social injustice, nonviolent struggle, and the so-called American way of life.
Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson
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Review
"This whopping epic (published by Oakland's feisty PM Press) tells the story of a Vietnam-era soldier who entered the war as a red-blooded small-town recruit and emerged as a die-hard dissident, driven to expose and oppose not only warfare in general but also the US' unique role in spreading military terror around the world." —Berkeley Daily Planet (July 12, 2011)
"Blood On the Tracks is the story of one man's attempt to change the direction of that machine (America) or, failing in that, preventing it from working at all." —www.counterpunch.org (July 18, 2011)
"[Willson's] 440-page book traces his journey from high school baseball star in Ashville, N.Y., to Air Force captain in Vietnam to antiwar figure - and on to today, when he says his most important message is that 'we have to all live more simply, because our lifestyle in America is totally unsustainable.'" —San Francisco Chronicle (July 18, 2011)
"One lesson (from the book) is the importance of 'finding your own tracks and taking a stand there.' . . . Brian did so by taking this action 'in person:' using the most powerful symbol at his disposal, his vulnerable, resilient, determined, and spirited body." —www.WagingNonviolence.org (September 2011)
"Blood on the Tracks reveals a thoughtful, reflective man who does not shy away from facing difficult truths about what we have made of our world." —Peace News, UK (November 25, 2011)
About the Author
S. Brian Willson is a Vietnam veteran and nonviolent pacifist. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Daniel Ellsberg is a former U.S. military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other newspapers. He lives in San Francisco.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 41 people found the following review helpful
By John Ketwig
Format:Paperback
The acronym PTSD has become well-recognized in America. Since World War II our country has participated in a lot of wars and military actions, and military Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has become an all too familiar reaction among returning soldiers. Few books have attempted to explain to the American people why their loved ones, neighbors, and friends have come home from military service scarred, troubled, and sometimes physically ill. Now, at last, veteran S.Brian Willson has defined PTSD as simply a uniquely American form of conscience, and his evidence is utterly damning.
Willson grew up a mainstream American young man, a baseball player filled with an abundance of commitment, energy, and conservative patriotic purpose. He is college educated, and his story is exceptionally well-told, clear and accessible. I could not find a mis-spelled word throughout, nor any obscure or ethnic term that would cause me to put the book down and leave my chair in search of a dictionary. I appreciate that in a book! Quite the contrary. I sat comfortably enthralled as I saw Brian Willson's experiences, perceptions, and many of his conclusions mirror my own. I, too, was brought up a baseball fan in western New York. I marched in the parades, and I was proud of my country. Sadly, despite being visibly unfit to go, we both found ourselves in Vietnam. We were young, still learning and investigating our worlds, and what we saw in Vietnam tore at our individual consciences. We came home changed, severely troubled by America's cruel militarism. We were mostly quiet for a long while, struggling to raise families and live the American dream. We were disillusioned, haunted by memories, sickened by the horrors of war. We met in the early 80s, in Washington, D.C. as we stood on the steps of the Capitol building and spoke out against our country's militaristic policies toward Central America. It was all happening again, and we revolted!
I had a family, small children, and a career. Brian had shed most of that. He was a bit older, more educated, and he chose to go off to the trouble spots and witness the tragedies for himself. Appalled, driven by conscience, he chose to give his all to oppose any more bloodshed, suffering, or waste. Along with three other veterans he began a long water-only fast on the steps of the Capitol to protest America's policies toward Nicaragua and El Salvador. We lived in suburban Maryland then, and I went as often as I could to be a part of the protest, and to meet with the fasters and hear their testimonies because I was now a daddy and responsible for teaching my children, and also for shaping the world they would inherit. From our far different roles, Brian Willson and I became friends. I watched the fasters become weaker, literally defying death on a variety of levels. Congressmen and Senators sometimes came to talk, but did nothing. Then one afternoon the fast was over, the fasters were gone, and I haven't been in Brian Willson's company since. We have spoken on the phone, but from afar. I have enjoyed a very successful career in the automotive business, and raised a family that is contributing, socially-conscious, and politically aware.
Brian Willson has been an activist. His anti-war activism brought him to northern California one day in 1987. Feeling confident that America's military machine had agreed to honor his protest, he knelt on a railroad bed in the path of a trainload of munitions. The train speeded up and ran over him, costing Brian his legs and nearly his life. I liken that moment to the massacre at Kent State. I do not trust our government, nor its military. The America that was presented to Brian, myself, and our generation is long gone... sold to the highest bidders. Where our country once symbolized hope and caring to the world's oppressed, today we buoy up the oppressors and export only death and destruction. Brian has made it his business to see it all, to investigate it all with a lawyer's eye for detail and undercurrent. He has stood upon prosthetic legs and journeyed to the hotspots of the world, listening to the peasants, the tortured, the maimed survivors. His book tells their stories. He is uniquely one of them, and their spokesman.
But Brian Willson did not stop there. He continued to think, to examine life from a spiritual perspective. Today as I write this he is pedaling his arm-powered three-wheel cycle from Oregon to San Francisco, his "book tour". Brian avoids automobiles and airplanes, preferring to live simply and not contribute to our nation's bloodthirsty need for petroleum. He is a purist, a pilgrim, an honorable man doing honorable work. After years of encouragement from friends, he has written his memoirs. His tales are amazing, eye-opening, and gut-wrenching. His method of telling them is crisp and clear, enlightening, uplifting, and utterly enjoyable. I highly recommend that every American read Brian Willson's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS. I have met many authors, but none so important as S. Brian Willson. If our shared revulsion at America's militarism, greed, and cruelty are the results of PTSD, it is not a bad thing. As Brian Willson points out, to follow blindly is to defy one's humanity and good conscience. I wish him Godspeed on his journeys.
John Ketwig
Willson grew up a mainstream American young man, a baseball player filled with an abundance of commitment, energy, and conservative patriotic purpose. He is college educated, and his story is exceptionally well-told, clear and accessible. I could not find a mis-spelled word throughout, nor any obscure or ethnic term that would cause me to put the book down and leave my chair in search of a dictionary. I appreciate that in a book! Quite the contrary. I sat comfortably enthralled as I saw Brian Willson's experiences, perceptions, and many of his conclusions mirror my own. I, too, was brought up a baseball fan in western New York. I marched in the parades, and I was proud of my country. Sadly, despite being visibly unfit to go, we both found ourselves in Vietnam. We were young, still learning and investigating our worlds, and what we saw in Vietnam tore at our individual consciences. We came home changed, severely troubled by America's cruel militarism. We were mostly quiet for a long while, struggling to raise families and live the American dream. We were disillusioned, haunted by memories, sickened by the horrors of war. We met in the early 80s, in Washington, D.C. as we stood on the steps of the Capitol building and spoke out against our country's militaristic policies toward Central America. It was all happening again, and we revolted!
I had a family, small children, and a career. Brian had shed most of that. He was a bit older, more educated, and he chose to go off to the trouble spots and witness the tragedies for himself. Appalled, driven by conscience, he chose to give his all to oppose any more bloodshed, suffering, or waste. Along with three other veterans he began a long water-only fast on the steps of the Capitol to protest America's policies toward Nicaragua and El Salvador. We lived in suburban Maryland then, and I went as often as I could to be a part of the protest, and to meet with the fasters and hear their testimonies because I was now a daddy and responsible for teaching my children, and also for shaping the world they would inherit. From our far different roles, Brian Willson and I became friends. I watched the fasters become weaker, literally defying death on a variety of levels. Congressmen and Senators sometimes came to talk, but did nothing. Then one afternoon the fast was over, the fasters were gone, and I haven't been in Brian Willson's company since. We have spoken on the phone, but from afar. I have enjoyed a very successful career in the automotive business, and raised a family that is contributing, socially-conscious, and politically aware.
Brian Willson has been an activist. His anti-war activism brought him to northern California one day in 1987. Feeling confident that America's military machine had agreed to honor his protest, he knelt on a railroad bed in the path of a trainload of munitions. The train speeded up and ran over him, costing Brian his legs and nearly his life. I liken that moment to the massacre at Kent State. I do not trust our government, nor its military. The America that was presented to Brian, myself, and our generation is long gone... sold to the highest bidders. Where our country once symbolized hope and caring to the world's oppressed, today we buoy up the oppressors and export only death and destruction. Brian has made it his business to see it all, to investigate it all with a lawyer's eye for detail and undercurrent. He has stood upon prosthetic legs and journeyed to the hotspots of the world, listening to the peasants, the tortured, the maimed survivors. His book tells their stories. He is uniquely one of them, and their spokesman.
But Brian Willson did not stop there. He continued to think, to examine life from a spiritual perspective. Today as I write this he is pedaling his arm-powered three-wheel cycle from Oregon to San Francisco, his "book tour". Brian avoids automobiles and airplanes, preferring to live simply and not contribute to our nation's bloodthirsty need for petroleum. He is a purist, a pilgrim, an honorable man doing honorable work. After years of encouragement from friends, he has written his memoirs. His tales are amazing, eye-opening, and gut-wrenching. His method of telling them is crisp and clear, enlightening, uplifting, and utterly enjoyable. I highly recommend that every American read Brian Willson's BLOOD ON THE TRACKS. I have met many authors, but none so important as S. Brian Willson. If our shared revulsion at America's militarism, greed, and cruelty are the results of PTSD, it is not a bad thing. As Brian Willson points out, to follow blindly is to defy one's humanity and good conscience. I wish him Godspeed on his journeys.
John Ketwig
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is not an easy book to read, but that is because its author never flinches from the truth, whether about America's brutal war record in Vietnam or his own complicity in that Imperial War, and that of all Americans of a certain age -- just as all Americans share the horror we are bringing to Afghan and Iraqi and Pakistani villages today. S. Brian Willson, the 4th of July gung-ho American boy, had already begun to question the lessons of "patriotism" with which we so proudly indoctrinate our children, especially our boy children, when, as an officer in Vietnam, he looked down at the dead eyes of a Vietnamese villager clutching her three bullet-ridden children, burnt beyond recognition by Napalm, and understood viscerally the fundamental center of Christ's teachings. As he took in the horror, he writes, "She was not alive. But at the moment her eyes met mine, it felt like a lightning bolt jolted through my entire being... `She is my family,' I said..."
Nearly twenty years later, I stood just behind Brian on a California train track in a well-publicized effort to block munitions trains carrying American weapons to kill other poor villagers in El Salvador and Nicaragua, thinking about the words he had spoken that morning, before one of those trains ripped his legs from his body. He said, "...each train that... gets by us is going to kill people, people like you and me.. And the question that I have to ask on these tracks is: am I any more valuable than those people?"
2500 years ago, the great Greek philosopher Diogenes is said to have carried a lamp in broad daylight searching "for an honest man." Blessed to have known S. Brian Willson for 30 years, I can say without equivocation, that had Diogenes met my friend, he could have put down his lamp and rested, having found what he was looking for.
Michael A. Kroll
Nearly twenty years later, I stood just behind Brian on a California train track in a well-publicized effort to block munitions trains carrying American weapons to kill other poor villagers in El Salvador and Nicaragua, thinking about the words he had spoken that morning, before one of those trains ripped his legs from his body. He said, "...each train that... gets by us is going to kill people, people like you and me.. And the question that I have to ask on these tracks is: am I any more valuable than those people?"
2500 years ago, the great Greek philosopher Diogenes is said to have carried a lamp in broad daylight searching "for an honest man." Blessed to have known S. Brian Willson for 30 years, I can say without equivocation, that had Diogenes met my friend, he could have put down his lamp and rested, having found what he was looking for.
Michael A. Kroll
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A comprehensive, studious and very readable story of the life of an American hero.
July 6, 2011
By G. King
Format:Paperback
When I first bought Brian Willson's book I expected an engaging story of an interesting life of a Vietnam vet who became a peace activist. You know: there are a lot of such stories. But very shortly into the book I realized this is no formulaic memoir. Brian is perhaps best remembered as the veteran who was run over by a train while blocking transportation of munitions in Concord, California on Sep. 1, 1987. The weapons were destined for U.S. wars in Central America. Brian lost both legs in the attack, during which the train conductors were ordered by superiors to triple the legal speed of a train in that area and, more importantly, not to stop for anyone sitting on the tracks. It was a targeted attack against a man whose life had metamorphosed from an All American, "communist hating" young adult, to a captain in the Air Force, to a man who witnessed first hand the intentional targeting by U.S.-led fighter jets of unarmed families in rural villages, to an Air Force veteran who, upon return to the U.S. actively opposed the war even while still in the service. Throughout the book Brian is attempting to answer the question: How was the government able to convince him, a decent person, that he should pick up his life and travel 9,000 miles to a land he's almost never heard of and kill people he'd never met? To answer the question we meet a who's who of philosophers, activists, government officials, community members, and others whom Brian knew personally or mined as a reader. The book includes too many italicized words and exclamation points that Brian uses for emphasis, when no emphasis is needed, as the material is so compelling. This is one of the best books ever produced on 20th Century America, I can't recommend it highly enough.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning
Authentic, heartfelt, relevant. Shows great courage and commitment to high goals and leading the human race to more respect for life.
Published 1 month ago by David G. Schwartz
5.0 out of 5 stars
Honest, straight forward, and a fine read
Brian has told his story with integrity and without fanfare. His book is well written and well documented so that we have an accurate account of the events of his life. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Andrea Penn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Speaking truth to power
This is a book that will shake your bones. We live in a world that is being devoured by power. Silently many of us feel helpless. S. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Michael J. Sliwa
5.0 out of 5 stars
Learning from History
Brian Willson, in what the subtitle warns is "a psychohistorical memoir," tells his life story in the context of the era within which he developed and acted. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Michael Meo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blood On The Tracks by S. Brian Willson
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS is a compelling read. For those who are comfortable in their American middle class lives it can be discomforting at times as one views their existence through... Read more
Published 14 months ago by David Evans
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book though not 100% accurate
Brian writes that after he was run over, there was a permanent encampment blocking every train for nearly two and half years.
This isn't accurate. Read more
This isn't accurate. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Sarah Morrill
1.0 out of 5 stars
The usual propaganda of the radical left
The same, old, tired and usual left-wing dogma sputtered by the most hateful and intolerant of them all - the progressive liberals. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Danman
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Living Hero
If world-famous peace activist S. Brian Willson's epic memoir, "Blood on the Tracks," became mandatory reading worldwide, this planet would quickly evolve into a far wiser, richer,... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Catherine Gallegos
3.0 out of 5 stars
Setting The Record Straight
I cannot speak to the veracity of the rest of the book, but the paragraph beginning with the words, "Our first team arrived in Nicaragua" (Pg. 190) is incorrect. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Bush
5.0 out of 5 stars
rd this along w susan rosenberg, cathy wilkerson, et al
Having worked w Brian at the Nat'l Moratorium on Prison Construction- I was so pleased to see him interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now and see that is the same blessed cuss... Read more
Published 18 months ago by moby pablo
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