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

Description

In his first book, James Tracy explores the evolution and history of radical pacifism, the nonviolent protest method that peaked in the United States during the 1960s. Tracy tells the little-known story of the Union Eight, a group of students at the Union Theological Seminary who refused to enter the draft for World War II in 1940. Their position represented a turning point for the Left, a move from communism and socialism toward civil disobedience based in religious faith and individual action; Tracy follows the influence of this transition through the 1940s, '50s, and '60s. His is a subject of history seldom mentioned or even understood, yet one that is vital to the history of the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s.