Customer Reviews

Direct Action: Radical Pacifism from the Union Eight to the Chicago Seven

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This extensively researched book shows the birth of a new breed of passive resistance in this country, in front of the backdrop of the 1960s and earlier. An essential text for anyone interested in the 1960s. (Also a great research paper resource . . .)

Before I read this book I associated the philosophy and protest techniques of pacifism with the 1950s civil rights movement and anti-war protests of the 1960s. Among the very useful things this book does is to move that clock back about ten or fifteen years. When was the first organized sit-in to desegregate a restaurant? 1943, in Chicago. When did whites and blacks ride together to integrate interstate busing? 1947, with the Journey of Reconciliation. Mass draft card burning? 1947, New York City. Radical activists giving up on imminent political revolution and moving to rural communes? That would be 1952.

The book traces the activities of a small but influential group of men and women, many of whom began their radical journey as a conscientious objector to military service in WW2. This is the "greatest generation" that doesn't get talked about: those who wanted to save America from its own militarism, who objected to the draft, who were horrified by the use of atomic weapons, who perceived injustice and put their bodies on the line to stop it.

It's a short book, so in-depth histories of individuals, or acts of protest, or organizations are not the point of the book. Rather the author traces the influence of these radical pacifists from the 1940s into the upheavals of the 50s and 60s. He makes the very interesting argument that the lonely righteousness of these WW2 objectors would, twenty years later, make it difficult for the protest organizations they influenced to forge a mass movement.

The book is brand new...well...not anymore:) but it was in perfect condition when i got it