By Edward Agro
Professor Lawrence Rosenwald’s ambitious book ”War No More” helps us find that tradition. It’s not your standard history, focused on well-recognized heroes – usually military – who purportedly single-handedly “make peace” – usually by military means. Instead it’s a picaresque ramble through three centuries of efforts by individuals, in many cases unknown to history, to celebrate in writing, song, and graphics and often putting their peace and quiet, if not more, on the line to defeat The Juggernaut of militarism that affects and stains all that is good in the American experiment. Reading these stories will be a great encouragement to modern day activists in the antiwar cause. And, somewhat like Howard Zinn’s “People’s History of the United States,” it will encourage citizens just awakening to their need to resist.
But if the cause is ponderous, the book is not; I found these 800-plus pages a joy to read. The thing is so rich that gulping it down all at once is not the only way to extract its treasures. Rosenwald’s prefatory notes to the selections are a great read in themselves; they give a good deal of the historical contexts, and though the author refrains from haranguing the reader, they give a sense of his own passionate conviction.
The selections themselves bring many surprises. Reading the selection “Wailing Shall Be in All Streets” shows the early attempt that finally after many years gave birth to “Slaughterhouse-Five.” There are a number of such discoveries; I’ll let the reader of “War No More” have the pleasure of discovering others.
Even the unknown indexer of this book deserves credit: one can profitably read the index to get another overview of the history of antiwar and nonviolent action.
Of course, no one volume can encompass the totality of the antiwar tradition of America – there’s just too much, and it comes from too many directions, conservative as well as liberal, radically passionate as well as logically argued.
Which brings up the question “War No More” begs us to answer: there has been so much effort and attention given to the struggle against militarism throughout American history, yet where is a generally recognized tradition within which we can find our home? Perhaps reading “War No More” will be one of the ways conscientious citizens can find or build such a tradition; maybe the tradition will come to be what we celebrate the 4th of July. One can only hope, and work.
The foregoing is a condensation of a longer review of “War No More,” which appears on Amazon.com
Gene Sharp’s answer to this question is “No.” In functioning democracies (that is, prior to elites taking everything), autonomy and wealth are still diffused widely. Few people will sacrifice what they already have on behalf of communal change.
