Lawrence Rosenwald

Sometimes a book is so important that I delay writing a review, or spend my time rewriting a review, or basically become paralyzed with the enormity of the task.

This is one of those books. I finished it a few weeks ago and I am trying to figure out how to write about its importance. About how every American needs to read it. How every American needs to take its messages to heart. And how every American needs to open their eyes to the need for a real dialogue about war, peace, and show more protest.

Through a series of essays, fiction, poems, and other literary devices, we are presented with a history of American writings about peace. But we are seeing it through the eyes of those who lived it and sacrificed for it. Starting with something as seemingly esoteric as a piece from Iroquois tradition (“The Tree of the Great Peace”), the collection works through America’s times of war and peace throughout the years, finishing with Jane Hirshfield’s 2015 poem “I Cast My Hook, I Decide to Make Peace.”

I found much of the content surprising. I knew of the protests in the 60s since I was alive during this turbulent time. I expected much of the writing to come from that time. But I was wrong. I had no idea of the organized resistance to wars that has occurred throughout our history.

It goes all the way back to the Revolutionary war, patriots who did not feel war was the answer. While I also expected some writing regarding WWI (I knew this was, at first, an unpopular war), I was surprised by the strong opposition to what I considered a popular(?) war – WWII. And it doesn’t stop there. Included are excellent thoughts and discussions about nuclear weapons and war, and, unsurprisingly, the war in Iraq.

And while there are philosophical discussions, there are also examples of people doing more than talking – actually living the difference…often from jail. Just for not wanting to fight.

There are two thoughts I would leave you with. First, just the title of Nicholson Baker’s essay speaks volumes about what this is all about. “Why I’m a Pacifist: The Dangerous Myth of a Good War.”

The dangerous myth of a good war.

Second is the image/thought that has stuck to me long after reading an excerpt from “Johnny Got His Gun” by the Vietnam vet Dalton Trumbo. He speaks adamantly about what it means to trade life for ideals. And how the dying man does not lie there thinking about what a great trade off he made. No, he lies there begging for life. And, if that is the case, (to quote Country Joe McDonald) what are we fighting for?

I do not agree with everything written in this book. I’m sure no one will. But it is important that we all understand what war really means, what peace means, and the steps some are willing to take in the defense of those postures.

It is a book that takes time to read. But you should take the time to read it, digest it, and determine how you will live your life differently. show less

Excellent compendium for its historical value. We'll all complain, of course, about what's been left out ... but that's to be expected in any anthology of this sort. One complaint I do have is that there wasn't more debate on pacifism versus anti-colonialist resistance.

And where were ...? "With God on Our Side"? "I Ain't Marching Any More"? Possibly in both cases the licensing fees from Dylan and from the Ochs estate were too high? It's unfortunate that LoA couldn't have paid the fee for show more such Viet Nam era classics (assuming that was the problem), but perhaps LoA needed to set a fixed licensing rate or they would have had to pay other poets/lyricists more as well.

And although Buffy Sainte-Marie's Canadian and thus technically not eligible for LoA, it would have been nice to have had an exception made for the sake of "Universal Soldier."

The texts are introduced by a short biography of each author, but that's not necessarily enough and unfortunately this volume is missing the end-notes traditional to LoA. And although there's a bibliographical listing at the rear of the book, it would have been helpful if the date-of-publication of each work had been identified in accompaniment to the text. Such dating sometimes but not always appears in the short introductory author-biography, but a simple year-of-publication would have been useful right in the title of the text. show less