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War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar & Peace Writing
Americans have been at war for most of our history as a people. Wars of conquest gave way to wars of empire, the Civil War to the World Wars, and the Cold War to the War on Terror. our national anthem celebrates heroism under fire, and martial imagery permeates our politics and our pastimes. But at every turn in this history, Americans have questioned and resisted both particular wars and justifications for war in general. Taking up the pen instead of the sword, they have produced a body of literature of great passion and power, a homegrown American tradition that refuses the proposition that war is the inevitable price of liberty or prosperity—that dares to envision a world where people learn war no more.
Gathering essays, letters, speeches, memoirs, songs, poems, cartoons, leaflets, stories, and other works by nearly 150 writers from the colonial era to the present, War No More brings this extraordinary writing together for the first time in a single volume, “a conversation,” in the words of editor Lawrence Rosenwald, “not yet fully described by historians, nor fully available to activists, but living in these pages.”
With a roster of writers that includes five-star generals, theologians, nuclear physicists, folk singers, statesmen, quietists, anarchists, veterans, and Nobel laureates, War No More reveals as never before the diversity, vitality, and perennial relevance of this literary tradition still in the making. Classic expressions of conscience from the journals of eighteenth- century Pennsylvania Quaker John Woolman and Thoreau’s seminal “Civil Disobedience” lay the groundwork for such influential modern theorists of nonviolence as David Dellinger, Thomas Merton, and Barbara Deming.
The long arc of the American antiwar movement is vividly traced in the urgent calls of activists, made in soaring oratory and galvanizing song, and in dramatic dispatches from the front lines of antiwar protests, among them Norman Mailer’s famous account of the 1967 march on the Pentagon from The Armies of the Night. The voices of veterans, from Union soldier Obadiah Ethelbert Baker to Camilo Mejía, a staff sergeant in Iraq, are prominently represented. So too is the first-hand testimony of conscientious objectors, whose religious and moral convictions led them to refuse military service, and who persisted in their beliefs in the face of ostracism, imprisonment, even torture. Contemporary writers, including Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Schell, Nicholson Baker, and Jane Hirshfield, demonstrate the ongoing richness of this literature in the years since September 11, 2001.
Woven together with informative headnotes by the editor, this groundbreaking collection features a detailed chronology of the antiwar movement, as well as a sixteen-page portfolio of illustrations.
Gathering essays, letters, speeches, memoirs, songs, poems, cartoons, leaflets, stories, and other works by nearly 150 writers from the colonial era to the present, War No More brings this extraordinary writing together for the first time in a single volume, “a conversation,” in the words of editor Lawrence Rosenwald, “not yet fully described by historians, nor fully available to activists, but living in these pages.”
With a roster of writers that includes five-star generals, theologians, nuclear physicists, folk singers, statesmen, quietists, anarchists, veterans, and Nobel laureates, War No More reveals as never before the diversity, vitality, and perennial relevance of this literary tradition still in the making. Classic expressions of conscience from the journals of eighteenth- century Pennsylvania Quaker John Woolman and Thoreau’s seminal “Civil Disobedience” lay the groundwork for such influential modern theorists of nonviolence as David Dellinger, Thomas Merton, and Barbara Deming.
The long arc of the American antiwar movement is vividly traced in the urgent calls of activists, made in soaring oratory and galvanizing song, and in dramatic dispatches from the front lines of antiwar protests, among them Norman Mailer’s famous account of the 1967 march on the Pentagon from The Armies of the Night. The voices of veterans, from Union soldier Obadiah Ethelbert Baker to Camilo Mejía, a staff sergeant in Iraq, are prominently represented. So too is the first-hand testimony of conscientious objectors, whose religious and moral convictions led them to refuse military service, and who persisted in their beliefs in the face of ostracism, imprisonment, even torture. Contemporary writers, including Barbara Kingsolver, Jonathan Schell, Nicholson Baker, and Jane Hirshfield, demonstrate the ongoing richness of this literature in the years since September 11, 2001.
Woven together with informative headnotes by the editor, this groundbreaking collection features a detailed chronology of the antiwar movement, as well as a sixteen-page portfolio of illustrations.
868 pages, Hardcover
First published June 14, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 1, 2025
War No More In the Library of America
The Library of America is a nonprofit publisher founded in 1979 which "publishes, preserves, and celebrates America’s greatest writing and offers resources for readers to explore this rich and diverse cultural heritage." The LOA publishes not only literary works but "historically significant documents and texts" as well. Over the years I have learned a great deal about America from the LOA volumes. The historical volumes the LOA has published include writings on the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, four large volumes on the Civil War, WW II, the War in Vietnam, and more, including a two-volume set of source material on the Civil Rights Era.
The LOA has published a new anthology of antiwar and peace writings, "War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar & Peace Writing" (2016) to accompany its other historical books of the American experience. Lawrence Rosenwald, the editor of the volume, is Anne Pierce Rogers Professor of English at Wellesley College and a longtime pacifist and war tax resister. Rosenwald selected the texts to the volume, prepared a short introduction to each selection, wrote an introduction to the volume as a whole and prepared a chronology of anti-war efforts in America beginning with the Iroquois Confederacy and concluding in 2010. James Carroll also wrote a short Foreword to the volume.
The anthology consists of about 150 antiwar and peace texts arranged roughly chronologically. The selections begin with the Iroquois and conclude with a poem, "I Cast My Hook, I Decide to Make Peace" by the contemporary American poet, Jane Hirshfield. The volume includes selections that cover war resistance and peace movements involving the Revolutionary War, the Mexican War, the Civil War, WW I, WW II, the War in Vietnam, and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The anthology includes broad-based selections on war and peace, independent of any specific conflict, and selections on the threats and dangers of nuclear war, as opposed to conventional war.
The selections are in a variety of genres, including essays, letters, speeches, stories, poems, and songs. The title of the anthology, for example, is taken from the traditional gospel song, "Down by the River-Side" with its refrain, "Ain't goin't study war no more", which appears with words and music in the collection at p. 161. There are famous American essays included, such as Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and William James' "The Moral Equivalent of War". These, and some other works included, are classic, broad American works with a significance beyond the subject matter of the anthology. Many other works in the collection will be less familiar. I enjoyed reading the selections from Eugene Debs and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. which I had not studied before. There is a selection from the Book of Mormon, Alma,Chapter 24. The writings show a diversity of tone, perspective and themes. The writings throughout are provocative and generally of a high literary and argumentative quality.
With its over 750 pages, the anthology's focus is on the turbulent post WW II years of the mid-20th Century. The collection includes a great deal of material on the nuclear age, on the relationship between the Civil Rights and Peace movements, and on the War in Vietnam. This material will hit home in a special way to readers who were in school during the years of Vietnam. The writings in this collection document the unhappy war and the many protests, draft card burnings, sit-ins, and acts of civil disobedience it created. The book brought back memories of a tragic war and of a protest movement which to my mind then and to my reading now does not appear in an entirely favorable light with its dogmatism, frequent heavy use of religion, arrogance, and certitudes. Different readers will assess these writings and events in different ways, as a goal of the anthology is to encourage reflection more than conviction. An essay that I did not know but that I enjoyed for its down-to-earth pragmatic tone was "The Role of the Military in the Nuclear Age" (p. 609) by Gene La Rocque. Many of the entries in the book including La Rocque's are by individuals who had served in the military. WW II is covered in the book with emphasis on resisters who chose to go to jail. There are two essays in the book that address the difficulties of pacifism in WW II in face of the Holocaust, those by Nicholson Baker, late in the volume and by Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to serve in Congress, who cast votes against war resolutions in both WW I and WW II.
In his Introduction to the anthology, Rosenwald states that the volume is likely to be read largely by those who are not committed pacifists. The book will show such readers the variety and diversity of American anti-war writings. With the many wars in American history, Rosenwald shows the accompanying strand of peace and pacifism which "constitute[s] a tradition as exceptional as our military might." This anthology amply brings this tradition to light.
I learned a great deal about American history in this anthology as well as about pacifism. I was not a committed pacifist before reading the anthology, and my reading did not persuade me otherwise. The book refreshed my familiarity with some works and writers and encouraged me to reflect. Overall, I read and loved this book as part of the depth of the United States and its experience which cannot be summarized or captured in any single moral teaching or volume. Our country has allowed and encouraged the development of many profound thoughts and expressions. This is an excellent book in the LOA for those readers wanting to explore American history and some of its responses to war. The LOA kindly sent me a review copy of this volume.
Robin Friedman
The Library of America is a nonprofit publisher founded in 1979 which "publishes, preserves, and celebrates America’s greatest writing and offers resources for readers to explore this rich and diverse cultural heritage." The LOA publishes not only literary works but "historically significant documents and texts" as well. Over the years I have learned a great deal about America from the LOA volumes. The historical volumes the LOA has published include writings on the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, four large volumes on the Civil War, WW II, the War in Vietnam, and more, including a two-volume set of source material on the Civil Rights Era.
The LOA has published a new anthology of antiwar and peace writings, "War No More: Three Centuries of American Antiwar & Peace Writing" (2016) to accompany its other historical books of the American experience. Lawrence Rosenwald, the editor of the volume, is Anne Pierce Rogers Professor of English at Wellesley College and a longtime pacifist and war tax resister. Rosenwald selected the texts to the volume, prepared a short introduction to each selection, wrote an introduction to the volume as a whole and prepared a chronology of anti-war efforts in America beginning with the Iroquois Confederacy and concluding in 2010. James Carroll also wrote a short Foreword to the volume.
The anthology consists of about 150 antiwar and peace texts arranged roughly chronologically. The selections begin with the Iroquois and conclude with a poem, "I Cast My Hook, I Decide to Make Peace" by the contemporary American poet, Jane Hirshfield. The volume includes selections that cover war resistance and peace movements involving the Revolutionary War, the Mexican War, the Civil War, WW I, WW II, the War in Vietnam, and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The anthology includes broad-based selections on war and peace, independent of any specific conflict, and selections on the threats and dangers of nuclear war, as opposed to conventional war.
The selections are in a variety of genres, including essays, letters, speeches, stories, poems, and songs. The title of the anthology, for example, is taken from the traditional gospel song, "Down by the River-Side" with its refrain, "Ain't goin't study war no more", which appears with words and music in the collection at p. 161. There are famous American essays included, such as Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and William James' "The Moral Equivalent of War". These, and some other works included, are classic, broad American works with a significance beyond the subject matter of the anthology. Many other works in the collection will be less familiar. I enjoyed reading the selections from Eugene Debs and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. which I had not studied before. There is a selection from the Book of Mormon, Alma,Chapter 24. The writings show a diversity of tone, perspective and themes. The writings throughout are provocative and generally of a high literary and argumentative quality.
With its over 750 pages, the anthology's focus is on the turbulent post WW II years of the mid-20th Century. The collection includes a great deal of material on the nuclear age, on the relationship between the Civil Rights and Peace movements, and on the War in Vietnam. This material will hit home in a special way to readers who were in school during the years of Vietnam. The writings in this collection document the unhappy war and the many protests, draft card burnings, sit-ins, and acts of civil disobedience it created. The book brought back memories of a tragic war and of a protest movement which to my mind then and to my reading now does not appear in an entirely favorable light with its dogmatism, frequent heavy use of religion, arrogance, and certitudes. Different readers will assess these writings and events in different ways, as a goal of the anthology is to encourage reflection more than conviction. An essay that I did not know but that I enjoyed for its down-to-earth pragmatic tone was "The Role of the Military in the Nuclear Age" (p. 609) by Gene La Rocque. Many of the entries in the book including La Rocque's are by individuals who had served in the military. WW II is covered in the book with emphasis on resisters who chose to go to jail. There are two essays in the book that address the difficulties of pacifism in WW II in face of the Holocaust, those by Nicholson Baker, late in the volume and by Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to serve in Congress, who cast votes against war resolutions in both WW I and WW II.
In his Introduction to the anthology, Rosenwald states that the volume is likely to be read largely by those who are not committed pacifists. The book will show such readers the variety and diversity of American anti-war writings. With the many wars in American history, Rosenwald shows the accompanying strand of peace and pacifism which "constitute[s] a tradition as exceptional as our military might." This anthology amply brings this tradition to light.
I learned a great deal about American history in this anthology as well as about pacifism. I was not a committed pacifist before reading the anthology, and my reading did not persuade me otherwise. The book refreshed my familiarity with some works and writers and encouraged me to reflect. Overall, I read and loved this book as part of the depth of the United States and its experience which cannot be summarized or captured in any single moral teaching or volume. Our country has allowed and encouraged the development of many profound thoughts and expressions. This is an excellent book in the LOA for those readers wanting to explore American history and some of its responses to war. The LOA kindly sent me a review copy of this volume.
Robin Friedman
June 19, 2025
“I ain't gonna study war no more.”
This is a core text to my understanding of life and morality. I read this book over a long time and it was continually life-affirming. I was constantly inspired and challenged. To say it was thought-provoking is an understatement, since it directly affected my entire internal ethos.
“Treat every murder in a war as a separate event.”
Pacifism is not only hard, it is nearly impossible even among those with the most solid of convictions. It’s often challenged logically and emotionally by the prevailing tendency of human nature towards violence. Peace is the goal among almost everyone, but the methods are constantly debated. I appreciate how much this book analyzed every angle and presented a multitude of voices.
I will probably re-read this book multiple times throughout my life.
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
This is a core text to my understanding of life and morality. I read this book over a long time and it was continually life-affirming. I was constantly inspired and challenged. To say it was thought-provoking is an understatement, since it directly affected my entire internal ethos.
“Treat every murder in a war as a separate event.”
Pacifism is not only hard, it is nearly impossible even among those with the most solid of convictions. It’s often challenged logically and emotionally by the prevailing tendency of human nature towards violence. Peace is the goal among almost everyone, but the methods are constantly debated. I appreciate how much this book analyzed every angle and presented a multitude of voices.
I will probably re-read this book multiple times throughout my life.
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”
September 11, 2016
I think it is interesting that I finished reading this book on the 15th anniversary of 9/11, the seminal event that led to the war(s) we are still fighting in the Middle East!
I went into this book thinking I'd see how "the other side" thought, because I am a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, patriotic believer in the rightness of my country (for the most part). Instead, what I discovered was that I agree with the philosophies of many of these authors. Whether I would be willing to go to jail for those beliefs, I doubt. However, instead of mocking the peaceniks I expected to discover, I find that I have a lot of respect for many of them. One cannot doubt the fervor with which they held these beliefs, especially when they put their bodies (in starvation strikes while in jail, or by losing both legs in a train attack) where their mouths were.
I'm glad I read this, and I encourage any open-minded patriot to read it, as well.
I went into this book thinking I'd see how "the other side" thought, because I am a dyed-in-the-wool conservative, patriotic believer in the rightness of my country (for the most part). Instead, what I discovered was that I agree with the philosophies of many of these authors. Whether I would be willing to go to jail for those beliefs, I doubt. However, instead of mocking the peaceniks I expected to discover, I find that I have a lot of respect for many of them. One cannot doubt the fervor with which they held these beliefs, especially when they put their bodies (in starvation strikes while in jail, or by losing both legs in a train attack) where their mouths were.
I'm glad I read this, and I encourage any open-minded patriot to read it, as well.
October 31, 2016
Unforunately I was unable to finish this book because I took it out from the library and it is quite lengthy. This is a better book to have lying around and to pick up to read perdiocially. I found it hard to just sit and read writing after writing. I would like to purchase this book for that reason alone. There were a lot of influential people in the book.... buuuuutttt... I had to knock it down a star because Obama and Kerry speeches are included. I realize that at one time they were promoting peace, however, their time in office has shown that they are for war just as much as the people they were protesting against.
November 30, 2016
Powerful collection of writings, with useful but tastefully brief editors' notes. Genuinely inspiring and also useful as a potential classroom text.
July 31, 2017
I'm a secular pacifist. This means that I have no religious explanation for my pacifism and, consequently, I'm probably just a coward. I might even be a "sissy" as a grown man recently suggested to me. I know that neither is true, of course, but being a pacifist is often an intensely lonely spiritual existence.
This book provides some relief from that loneliness. It's not entirely feel-good balm, though, actually it's far from it. The pieces in this book are not wholly pacifist in nature - Omar Bradley appears here, as do other soldiers who never came to regret their service.
There's also plenty of intersectionality here - peace work runs through various social issues and struggles, and that's as it should be. The selections are unflinching and often confrontational, disturbing, etc. and again, that's as it should be, because being a pacifist means that you set yourself in opposition to ages of assumed wisdom.
This book provides some relief from that loneliness. It's not entirely feel-good balm, though, actually it's far from it. The pieces in this book are not wholly pacifist in nature - Omar Bradley appears here, as do other soldiers who never came to regret their service.
There's also plenty of intersectionality here - peace work runs through various social issues and struggles, and that's as it should be. The selections are unflinching and often confrontational, disturbing, etc. and again, that's as it should be, because being a pacifist means that you set yourself in opposition to ages of assumed wisdom.
August 20, 2023
This is a good resource to have on your bookshelf if you are committed to the peace movement, covering as it does a vast range antiwar activists from colonial times to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is limited, however, to American activists, featuring, for example, Eugene Debs who opposed World War I in the US and went to prison but not Jean Jaures who opposed the war in France and was assassinated for his views. The excerpts from World War II-era pacifists was new to me and made a surprisingly good case for a negotiated end to the Second World War.
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July 29, 2016303.66097 W2535 2016
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August 14, 2018I did not read the whole book so I can't rate it. However, what I did read was quite interesting and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews