‘Vividly reconstructs the dramatic story of these men whose fortitude kept alive the principle of conscientious objection we now take for granted’ Spectator ‘A fascinating story, thoroughly researched and clearly told’ Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday Book of the Week In June 1916, as his brother Philip was on the way to the Somme, Bert Brocklesby was in prison under sentence of death. He had refused to fight in the First World War. In this thoughtful, compelling and poignant book, Will Ellsworth-Jones tells the remarkable and little-known story of courageous men like Bert Brocklesby, who defied both brutal incomprehension from the military, and white feathers waved at them in the street, to leave a lasting legacy: the freedom to voice unpopular beliefs and to challenge those who decide to take us to war. ‘A fascinating and frightening story of an army very nearly out of control of its political masters’ Francis Beckett, Guardian ‘A moving and grippingly readable book’ Sunday Telegraph
To many they were nothing more than cowards, but the 'conchies' of the First World War had the courage to stand by their principles when the nation was against them... An innovative new history of conscientious objectors during the First World War. Drawing on previously unpublished archive material, Karyn Burnham reconstructs the personal stories of several men who refused to fight, bringing the reader face-to-face with their varied, often brutal, experiences.Charles Dingle: Defying his father's wishes by objecting to military service, Charles joins the Friends Ambulance Unit and finds himself in the midst of some of the fiercest fighting of the war.Jack Foister: Jack, a young student, cannot support the war in any way. Imprisoned and shipped secretly out to France, Jack has no idea what lengths the military will go to in order to break him.James Landers: A Christian and pacifist, James faces a dilemma: if he sticks to his principles, he faces imprisonment but if he joins the Non Combatant Corps he can financially support his family. Gripping accounts reveal the traumatic and sometimes terrifying events these men went through and help readers to discover what it was really like to be a conscientious objector.As seen in the Northern Echo, Ilkley Gazette, Ripon Gazette, Wetherby News, Kent & Sussex Courier and Bradford Telegraph & Argus. Also seen in Essence and Discover Your History magazines.
A sweeping history of the passionate men and women in uniform who have bravely and courageously exercised the power of dissent Before the U.S. Constitution had even been signed, soldiers and new veterans protested. Dissent, the hallowed expression of disagreement and refusal to comply with the government’s wishes, has a long history in the United States. Soldier dissenters, outraged by the country’s wars or egregious violations in conduct, speak out and change U.S. politics, social welfare systems, and histories. I Ain’t Marching Anymore carefully traces soldier dissent from the early days of the republic through the wars that followed, including the genocidal “Indian Wars,” the Civil War, long battles against slavery and racism that continue today, both World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, and contemporary military imbroglios. Acclaimed journalist Chris Lombardi presents a soaring history valorizing the brave men and women who spoke up, spoke out, and talked back to national power. Inviting readers to understand the texture of dissent and its evolving and ongoing meaning, I Ain’t Marching Anymore profiles conscientious objectors including Frederick Douglass’s son Lewis, Evan Thomas, Howard Zinn, William Kunstler, and Chelsea Manning, adding human dimensions to debates about war and peace. Meticulously researched, rich in characters, and vivid in storytelling, I Ain’t Marching Anymore celebrates the sweeping spirit of dissent in the American tradition and invigorates its meaning for new risk-taking dissenters.
Sometimes intensely moving, and often inspiring, these memoirs show that in some cases, individual conscientious objectors - many well-educated and politically aware - sought to reform the penal system from within either by publicizing its dysfunction or through further resistance to authority.
The First World War's appalling death toll and the need for a sense of equality of sacrifice on the home front led to Canada's first experience of overseas conscription. While historians have focused on resistance to enforced military service in Quebec, this has obscured the important role of those who saw military service as incompatible with their religious or ethical beliefs. Crisis of Conscience is the first and only book about the Canadian pacifists who refused to fight in the Great War. The experience of these conscientious objectors offers insight into evolving attitudes about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship during a key period of Canadian nation building.
"Hitherto, the stand taken by Britain's International Bible Students in opposition to war has been ignored, misunderstood and even dismissed. Gary Perkins' thorough and scholarly work is an essential corrective to all of that. This pioneering work is a necessary contribution to our growing understanding of the diverse character of Britain's anti-war community during the First World War." Cyril Pearce, University of Leeds, author of 'Comrades in Conscience'. "It is most definitely my kind of study, being based on thorough research, lucidly written, and argued with subtlety, nuance, and courtesy. It makes clear that I, Rae, and others have got a lot wrong in our references to the IBSA. Your detailed biographical treatment of IBSA objectors establishes what a dutiful and disciplined group they were - model citizens, from the state's and civil society's points of view, in everything other than their willingness to do army service. Even to a secular non-pacifist like me, they come across as admirable and likeable." Martin Ceadel, Emeritus Fellow of New College Oxford and Professor of Politics, University of Oxford. Peace studies following the Great War tended to concentrate attentions on Quaker pacifists and Socialists who were among the more outspoken conscientious objectors. As a result the stand of quieter religious minorities tended to be marginalised, forgotten and even lost, although they were no less remarkable and, in some instances, major players in key events of the time. This book encapsulates the painstaking results of fifteen years research into the stand of early Bible Students as conscientious objectors in World War One Britain. Scouring surviving military records, local and national library archives, newspaper reports, Hansard Parliamentary statements, contemporary Watch Tower references, contributed family scrap books and CO memoirs, researcher Gary Perkins sort to recover the history of one such 'lost' group: members of the International Bible Students Association. He found that while small in number, in terms of expectation and performance the Bible Student COs "punched way above their weight and their fingerprints may be said to have been left all over the important episodes of Britain's World War One peace history." At last, their true story of courage, faith, tragedy and triumph has been identified and the history of the early Bible Students, some one hundred years later, is given the recognition it deserves. In so doing the account related illuminates the journey taken by the antecedents of today's Jehovah's Witnesses, a group said to "make up the largest community in the world today that objects to wars." The book provides indispensable reading for scholars and students of the First World War, especially for those who may hold an interest in conscientious objection, religious minorities and war resistance, and who want to go beyond the standard works which have dominated the subject for the last century.
We Will Not Cease is the epoch record of New Zealander Archibald Baxter's brutal treatment as a conscientious objector. In 1915, when he was 33, Baxter was arrested, sent to prison, then shipped under guard to Europe, where he was forced to the front line against his will. Punished to the limits of his physical and mental endurance, Baxter was stripped of all dignity, beaten, starved, and left for dead. In a final attempt to discredit him, authorities consigned him to a mental institution, an experience that would haunt him for the rest of his life.Against the backdrop of troops being mindlessly slaughtered at the whim of upper-echelon officers, We Will Not Cease is a story of extreme bravery and ultimate resolve. Archibald Baxter's lonely fight against the war to end all wars is a nightmare that Kafka could have penned -- except that the story is true.
COVERS : Banff National Park, Elk Island National Park, Glacier National Park, Jasper National Park, Kootenay National Park, Mount Revelstoke National Park, Point Pelee National Park, Prince Albert National Park, Riding Mountain National Park, Waterton Lakes National Park, Yoho National Park.
Here on the Edge answers the growing interest in a long-neglected element of World War II history: the role of pacifism in what is often called “The Good War.” Steve McQuiddy shares the fascinating story of one conscientious objector camp located on the rain-soaked Oregon Coast, Civilian Public Service (CPS) Camp #56. As home to the Fine Arts Group at Waldport, the camp became a center of activity where artists and writers from across the country focused their work not so much on the current war, but on what kind of society might be possible when the shooting finally stopped. They worked six days a week—planting trees, crushing rock, building roads, and fighting forest fires—in exchange for only room and board. At night, they published books under the imprint of the Untide Press. They produced plays, art, and music—all during their limited non-work hours, with little money and few resources. This influential group included poet William Everson, later known as Brother Antoninus, “the Beat Friar”; violinist Broadus Erle, founder of the New Music Quartet; fine arts printer Adrian Wilson; Kermit Sheets, co-founder of San Francisco's Interplayers theater group; architect Kemper Nomland, Jr.; and internationally renowned sculptor Clayton James. After the war, camp members went on to participate in the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance of the 1950s, which heavily influenced the Beat Generation of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder—who in turn inspired Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, leading the way to the 1960s upheavals epitomized by San Francisco's Summer of Love. As camp members engaged in creative acts, they were plowing ground for the next generation, when a new set of young people, facing a war of their own in Vietnam, would populate the massive peace movements of the 1960s. Twenty years in the making and packed with original research, Here on the Edge is the definitive history of the Fine Arts Group at Waldport, documenting how their actions resonated far beyond the borders of the camp. It will appeal to readers interested in peace studies, World War II history, influences on the 1960s generation, and in the rich social and cultural history of the West Coast.
