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Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War illuminates the antiwar campaigns of select individuals and groups in the United States during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Authored by Francis Shor, professor emeritus of history at Wayne State University, the book's varied, isolated chapters offer a thoroughly readable exploration of peace advocacy through a series of distinct examples. Himself an experienced advocate for peace, Shor has published books and articles covering a broad range of topics in twentieth century United States and global history, including Dying Empire: U.S. Imperialism and Global Resistance (Routledge, 2010) and Soupy Sales and the Detroit Experience: Manufacturing a Television Personality (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021), and three of the eight cases studies compiled here are revised and expanded versions of articles Shor published previously. However, Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War is unfortunately limited by a lack of significant argumentative exploration to tie its examples together; nor does the book present sufficient original archival material to elevate its analysis beyond that found in the existing scholarship underpinning each chapter. The book is broken into two parts, the first detailing "Individual Voices of Peace Advocacy" (3)—Albert Einstein, Alice Herz, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cindy Sheehan. Chapter Two probes Einstein's lifetime of pacifism to document a narrative of change "from militant to pragmatic to melancholic" in response to the varying sociohistorical conditions of World War One through the birth of the Cold War. Next, Shor illuminates Alice Herz's journey from escaping Nazi Germany through to her startling death by self-immolation in 1965. Chapter Four documents Martin Luther King, Jr.'s anti-Vietnam War opposition through a narrative focusing on his now widely examined 1967 Riverside Church address. This book's half closes with Cindy Sheehan, as Shor advances to the twenty-first century to describe how Sheehan's maternal grief framed antiwar opposition to the second Iraq War. The second part explores different organizations and social movements which offered "The Collective Chorus of Peace Advocacy" (5). In Chapter Six, we move back in time to examine how both American and Australian Industrial Workers of the World campaigns challenged the first world war. Next, we encounter the peace advocacy of the Vietnam War-era Draft Resistance Movement, the chapter concentrating on activities in the American Midwest wherein Shor was himself involved. In Chapter Eight, Shor discusses the 1980s anti-Reagan advocacy of Witness for Peace and its resistance to war in Nicaragua. Finally, the women's peace encampments of the 1980s are examined with focus on the particularity of women's perspectives against militarism. Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War is undoubtedly ambitious in its stated aims. The book's first three pages promise expansive coverage of big issues in peace history: the differences between antiwar and peace advocacy, and negative versus positive peace (1); scrutiny of particular conflicts "to investigate how the lead-up to and prosecution of those wars created the context for antiwar" advocacy (2); an investigation of the "socio-historical conditions" that give rise to anti-militarism (2); a consideration of the "strategies and tactics adopted by peace advocates" (2); "the degree to which both antiwar and peace forces erode" the legitimacy of patriotism and state violence (3); a sociocultural history investigating "how individuals and social movements enact their beliefs about war and peace" in specific contexts; and the various ways class, race/ethnicity, gender, and religion inform peace advocates (3). However, the book does not accomplish these expansive aspirations. Unfortunately, Shor's book offers little in terms of original research or excavation of archival material to provoke insight from its focused examples. This is clear for episodes that have already received significant scholarly interest, as little new argument or analysis arises from discussions of these already well-considered subjects. Shor's consideration of Martin Luther King Jr's Beyond Vietnam speech and his opposition to the Vietnam War does not progress much—either in original insight or research—beyond the existing historical scholarship used to inform it. Chapter Seven's investigation of the Vietnam War-era Draft Resistance Movement draws substantially from the notable texts of Michael Foley (Confronting the War Machine 2003), Tom Wells (The War Within 1996), and Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan (Who Spoke Up? 1984), retreading the same ground. This shortcoming of Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War becomes particularly restrictive for those cases where historical scholarship is already lacking. For example, Chapter Three narrates the life and death of Alice Herz, the first person to self-immolate in protest in the United States, while acknowledging the lack of attention she has so far received. There is significant potential, significant opportunity, and I would argue a requirement to excavate original source material and directly tackle limited scholarly interest in order to elevate Herz's curiously undervalued historical status. But Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War misses this opportunity. Shor does not, for example, connect Herz's well-documented experience of migration as a refugee from Nazism to her peace advocacy in the United States, or to her decision to enact self-immolation in protest of the Vietnam War. This chapter narrates the facts of Herz's life without revealing Shor's own assessment of her significance. Similarly, Chapter Nine, considering the women's peace encampment of the 1980s, grounds itself largely in scholarship that is now over 30 years old, offering short consideration of the fascinating feminist aspects of a widely misunderstood and ignored global antiwar phenomenon. The argumentative and analytical coverage promised by the introduction are left to the reader to ascertain from the curious compilation of examples that follow. The book lacks an argumentative through-line that ties its examples together or allows comparative perspectives to emerge. Significantly, this leaves uncertain the reason why these particular individuals and groups are put together in this way. The book does not justify why a focus on Martin Luther King in 1967 should then be followed by Cindy Sheehan in 2003, without any exploration of characters from the interim; or what comparisons we are supposed to draw from a chapter on Industrial Workers of the World in World War One followed immediately by the student-led Vietnam War Draft Resistance; or indeed why the book is split into two distinct halves for individuals and groups. The book's conclusion reflects this, eschewing a summary of what has been proven (which remains elusive) to instead offer a broad consideration of Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic and French existentialist Albert Camus, followed by small consideration of masculinity and the gender-based anti-militarism of Cindy Sheehan, Alice Herz, Women Strike for Peace, and Greenham Common. The book's overall point is perhaps diluted by its attempted expansiveness. Each individual and group acted in profoundly distinct historical periods, but the book does not allow itself to explore how those circumstances shaped the specifics of their actions, the differences in their rhetoric and repertoires, or the significance of those differences. As suggested by the introduction, each episode accounts for a different conflict and sociohistorical context, but there is little explication of how unique and distinct environments produced their particular antiwar advocates. Despite examining a range of individuals, movements, tactics, rhetoric, Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War does not explain how Shor perceives the differences between peace advocacy and antiwar campaigning, between positive and negative peace. Nevertheless, Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War succeeds in compiling case studies that reveal myriad perspectives, strategies, and achievements in peace campaigns across different historical periods. The book's narrative histories of its subjects are useful for separate introductory guides to particular individuals and groups. It lacks original archival research, but the scholarship is sound. Similarly, its compilation of articles serves to reveal Shor's take on things. But I find some intriguing potential for future publications lurks within Peace Advocacy in the Shadow of War. Throughout the book, Shor offers glimpses into his own involvement in the peace movement. These are truly magical moments. Introducing his chapter on the Riverside address, Shor reveals that he spoke with King in 1966 and they together pondered the difficulty of encouraging Black soldiers to take up the cause of nonviolence amid the Vietnam War. In the opening sentences to this book's investigation of draft resistance, Shor describes his own arrest as part of the movement. The discussion of the 1984 Witness for Peace similarly begins with Shor illuminating both his work and his contemporary comprehensions of the peace advocacy to which he was contributing. These moments tease a more absorbing history—an autobiographical account of Shor's life of activism, offering his personal insight on peace advocacy over time based on his encounters with the American peace movement. That would, evidently, be a valuable account. Jon Coburn is a Senior Lecturer in American History and Programme Leader for English and History at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom. His research on women's peace and antinuclear protest has been published in Peace & Change and the Journal of Women's History, and his forthcoming monograph examines the history of Women Strike for Peace. He is currently researching the phenomenon of protest suicide during the Vietnam War.
Jon Coburn (Wed,) studied this question.