February 2023 MBR The American History Shelf

The American History Shelf

War By Other Means
Daniel Akst
Melville House
46 John Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
https://www.mhpbooks.com
9781612199245, $28.99, HC, 384pp

https://www.amazon.com/War-Other-Means-Generation-Revolutionized/dp/1612199240

Synopsis: Pacifists who fought against the Second World War faced insurmountable odds -- but their resistance, philosophy, and strategies fostered a tradition of activism that shaped America right up to the present day.

"War By Other Means: The Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionized Resistance" is a provocative and deeply researched work of history in which Daniel Akst takes his readers into the wild, heady, and uncertain times of America on the brink of a world war, following four fascinating resisters who would subsequently become famous political thinkers and activists: David Dellinger, Dorothy Day, Dwight MacDonald, and Bayard Rustin.

The lives of these diverse anti-war advocates (a principled and passionate seminary student, a Catholic anarchist, a high-brow intellectual leftist, and an African-American pacifist and agitator) create the perfect prism through which to see World War II from a new angle, that of the opposition, as well as to show how great and lasting their achievements were.

The resisters did not stop the war, of course, but their impact would be felt for decades. Many of them went on to lead the civil-rights and anti-Vietnam War movements, the two most important social stands of the second half of the twentieth century. The various World War II resisters pioneered non-violent protest in America, popularized Gandhian principles, and desegregated the first prison mess halls. Theirs is a story that has never been told -- until now.

Critique: Organized into three main section (Before; During; After), "War By Other Means: The Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionized Resistance" is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of twenty-two pages of Notes and a nineteen page Index. A unique contribution to our understanding of American in World War II, "War By Other Means" is unreservedly recommended for community and academic library World War II history, biography, and social activist collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "War By Other Means" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $15.99).

Editorial Note: Daniel Akst (http://akst.com) is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Slate and other leading publications. He has written scores of book reviews over the years and was a board member of the National Book Critics Circle. He has been a Koret Fellow at the University of California (Berkeley) Graduate School of Journalism, a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, DC, and a public policy fellow at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

The Midwest Book Review is an organization of volunteers committed to promoting literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. We accept no funds from authors or publishers. Full permission is given to post any of these reviews on thematically appropriate websites, newsgroups, listserves, internet discussion groups, organizational newsletters, or to interested individuals. Please give the Midwest Book Review a credit line when doing so.

The Midwest Book Review publishes the monthly book review magazines "California Bookwatch", "Internet Bookwatch", "Children's Bookwatch", "MBR Bookwatch", "Reviewer's Bookwatch", and "Small Press Bookwatch". All are available for free on the Midwest Book Review website at www (dot) midwestbookreview (dot) com

Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them to:

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129

To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugalmuse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publisher, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number, and list price).

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review