by Daniel Akst
First published 2022
America stands on the edge of global war, but four individuals refuse to join the march toward violence. David Dellinger abandons his seminary studies to oppose the conflict. Dorothy Day uses her Catholic anarchist beliefs to resist the war machine. Dwight MacDonald applies his intellectual leftist principles against military action. Bayard Rustin faces double persecution as both an African American and a pacifist. These resisters know they cannot stop America from entering World War II, but they fight anyway through protests, writings, and civil disobedience. Prison becomes a testing ground for their beliefs. Mess halls become laboratories for desegregation. Their opposition to one war plants seeds for future movements. Akst follows these four figures through their wartime resistance and beyond, showing how their principled stands during World War II created the foundation for the civil rights movement and Vietnam War protests that would transform America decades later.
Genres: historical-fiction, biography-memoir, activism, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: principled-stand, resistance, transformation
Setting: America
Period: World War II
384 pages · Hardcover · Melville House
Content warnings: war