We Who Dared to Say No to Waruncovers some of the forgotten but compelling body of work from the American antiwar traditionspeeches, articles, poetry, book excerpts, political cartoons, and morefrom people throughout our history who have opposed war. Beginning with the War of 1812, these selections cover every major American war up to the present and come from both the left and the right, from religious and secular viewpoints. There are many surprises, including a forgotten letter from a Christian theologian urging Confederate President Jefferson Davis to exempt Christians from the draft and a speech by Abraham Lincoln opposing the 1848 Mexican War. Among others, Daniel Webster, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Grover Cleveland, Eugene Debs, Robert Taft, Paul Craig Roberts, Patrick Buchanan, and Country Joe and the Fish make an appearance. This first-ever anthology of American antiwar writing offers the full range of the subject's richness and variety.
Murray Polneris a freelance editor and writer whose work has appeared in
Washington Monthly,
Commonweal,
The Nation,
Columbia Journalism Review, and the
Jewish Week, among others. He lives in Great Neck, New York.
Thomas E. Woods, Jr., is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His numerous books include theNew York TimesbestsellerThe Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Woods lives in Auburn, Alabama, with his wife and three daughters.
Library JournalHistory repeats itself, and Polner and Woods remind us that both Leftist dissent against jingoism and Rightist opposition to governments swollen by war run throughout American history.
BooklistRepresenting both sides of the ideological divide, editors Polner and Woods have collected a vast and varied array of speeches, essays, letters, poetry, even popular song lyrics, from our country?sl#,