A native New Yorker, Daniel Akst 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.
"Akst argues that the modern progressive movement, wide-ranging in
its causes and narratives today, has origins in the pacifist
response to American involvement in World War II... At its best,
one gets the sense of generative force born from such intense
intellectual, moral and religious pressure." -- The Washington
Post
"In focusing on four pacifists who fought against the war rather
than fighting in it ... Akst wants us to consider what it meant to
take an unpopular (and often illegal) stand against arguably the
last war Americans widely supported." -- The Los Angeles Times
"Akst handles a potentially controversial topic gracefully... War
by Other Means is a valuable piece of nonfiction, shedding light on
a small but strong group of people whose activism is mostly
overlooked in the study of World War II, but who were, in Akst's
words, a "tiny current — which somehow became a tsunami of social
change." --The National Catholic Reporter
"Akst provides fascinating biographical sketches of his
protagonists...They taught Americans to be wary of authority,
consolidation and dehumanization." --The Star Tribune
"This text is an important, detailed and captivatingly told history
of an under examined piece of US history. It raises questions about
war and peace, allegiance and conscience, nation and humanity. It
is certainly worth your time." --Counterpunch
"Akst convincingly places his protagonists in a lineage of
antiauthoritarian activism that runs from Thoreau to the 1960s
counterculture and beyond. This history casts the Greatest
Generation in a new light." --Publishers Weekly
"A worthy exploration of a little-known episode in the history of
American involvement in WWII." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Fascinating... Akst grounds his protagonists’ accomplishments as
well as their failings in their individual personalities; when your
activism is a part of a lifelong intellectual pilgrimage, staying
pinned down to one philosophy or strategy is difficult.
Nevertheless… on a host of issues—racism, militarism,
authoritarianism, and the looming threat of the Bomb—they broke
through where others were often afraid to make a fuss. Channeling
their principles into a more enduring resistance is the necessary
work of their successors." --The History News Network
"A vividly written history of conscientious objection to war and
militarism from 1941 to 1945 and beyond... a compelling and
challenging book... [Akst's] scholarship can help us as we confront
today the looming threats of wider war..." --The Catholic
Worker
"War by Other Means paints a compelling portrait of World War
II–era pacifist militance." -- Reason Magazine
"Inspiring and challenging." --The New York Journal of Books
"Absorbing...The human conscience is a complicated organ, and
generational greatness can take more than one form." --The
Pennsylvania Gazette
"Fascinating... a sympathetic and compelling story of pacifists’
courage and the enduring impact of their testimony." --Friends
Journal
"Journalist Daniel Akst’s well-written War by Other Means tells the
story of U.S. pacifists facing off against the Good War — and how
being on the wrong side of 1940s America steeled and trained
leaders who used nonviolence decisively in the Civil Rights
Movement two decades later." --The Washington Independent Review of
Books
"War By Other Means offers the most well-rounded exploration of the
wartime pacifist's story I have yet read. Beyond that, it analyzes
in depth the personalities and philosophies of some of the most
prominent COs, helping us to understand their ethical decisions and
the way they went about making their opposition to war felt." --The
Anarchist Review of Books
"An important and engaging look at a cast of remarkable American
characters and their unique blend of ideological pacifism." --The
Marginal Revolution
"Interesting and well written ... If War by Other Means does help
to popularize these too often forgotten figures more widely, then
this book will have contributed a great service." --Matt Meyer,
Fellowship Magazine
"An engaging popular account written for a general audience ...
this is a terrific book ... lively and absorbing." --Scott H.
Bennett, Peace and Change
The stories of the brave people in this book are a profoundly
important, and unduly ignored, part of modern American history.
Daniel Akst tells them with grace and scope, showing how the
convictions of his characters carried them through their whole
lives, and into some of the most important battles for social
justice of our time. --Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's
Ghost
Daniel Akst has written an engaging and eloquent book about
American pacifists in times that tried their world-views. He tells
a morally complicated, compelling story that will intrigue
especially anyone interested in 20th century American intellectual
and political history. --Mitchell Cohen, former co-editor of
Dissent; author of The Politics of Opera
Dan Akst liberates the history of World War II-era pacifism from
familiar “Greatest Generation” narratives. Buoyed by
anti-authoritarianism and nonviolent theology, antiwar
activists—ranging from David Dellinger and Dorothy Day to Bayard
Rustin and Dwight MacDonald—passionately opposed the conflict. With
lucid prose, Akst explains how their resistance planted the seeds
for the modern progressive movement. --Betsy Wood, author of Upon
the Altar of Work
"War by Other Means offers the most well-rounded exploration
of the wartime pacifists’ story I have yet read." -- Eric
Laursen, Fifth Estate
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