David Dellinger: The Life and Times of a Nonviolent Revolutionary

by Andrew E. Hunt

The year was 1969. In a Chicago courthouse, David Dellinger, one of the Chicago Eight, stood trial for conspiring to disrupt the National Democratic Convention. Dellinger, a long-time but relatively unknown activist, was suddenly, at fifty-three, catapulted into the limelight for his part in this intense courtroom drama.
From obscurity to leader of the antiwar movement, David Dellinger is the first full biography of a man who bridged the gap between the Old Left and the New Left. Born in 1915 in the upscale Boston suburb of Wakefield to privilege, Dellinger attended Yale during the Depression, where he became an ardent pacifist and antiwar activist. Rejecting his parents’ affluent lifestyle, he endured lengthy prison sentences as a conscientious objector to World War II and created a commune in northern New Jersey in the 1940s, a prototype for those to follow twenty years later.
His instrumental role in the creation of Liberation magazine in 1956 launched him onto the national stage. Writing regular essays for the influential radical monthly on the arms race and the Civil Rights movement, he earned an audience among the New Left radicals. As anti-Vietnam sentiment grew, he became, in Abbie Hoffman’s words, the father of the antiwar movement and the architect of the 1968 demonstrations in Chicago. He remained active in anti-war causes until his death on May 25, 2004 at age 88.
Vilified by critics and glorified by supporters, Dellinger was a man of a rigid Ghandian who nonetheless supported violent revolutionary movements; a radical thinker and gifted writer forced to work as a baker to feed his large family; and a charismatic leader who taught his followers to distrust all leaders. Along the way, he encountered Eleanor Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black Panthers and all the other major figures of the American Left.
The remarkable story of a stubborn visionary torn between revolution and compromise, David Dellinger reveals the perils of dissent in America through the struggles of one of our most important dissenters.

Genres: Politics, History

346 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

Andrew E. Hunt also publishes fiction under the name Andrew Hunt.

Reviews

[P.J. Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is well done, but I prefer Dellinger’s own account of his life. Hunt fills in the gaps and provides overview, but does not supplant Dellinger’s book. Both books are worth reading. They don’t always agree. On page 64 Hunt calls Pearl Harbor an “unprovoked attack.” Dellinger saw it differently, as Hunt acknowledges. This book extends decades beyond the time frame covered in Dellinger's book.

Dellinger’s commitment to nonviolence was put to the test over the years. He was imprisoned, abused to the point of torture, force-fed, kept in solitary, splattered with red paint, beaten up, clubbed by police, vilified by the press, but stayed true to his principles through it all. He had his jaw broken and one eye blinded, without retaliating. He was confrontational, but not violent. What a reflection on the United States of America! How we love to punish peacemakers! This is a story of relentless persecution of a good man by a society sick with violence.

Much of this book is concerned with the chronic factional infighting on the Left, and Dellinger’s attempts to co-ordinate the disparate groups into a powerful mobilization. To unite the moderates with the militants to stop the militarists. It is impossible to say to what extent he succeeded, but surely he made a difference.

At times Hunt is critical of Dellinger, but is fair and honest about it, and in the end leaves the reader with a sense of the greatness of the man. Dellinger was America’s Gandhi. He was not a liberal, not a socialist, but a revolutionary. A “fulltime crusader,” said the CIA. The message of Dellinger’s life—that violence is not the answer—comes across in this book.

[Kenneth Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a biography about a man who was a pacifist activist for his whole life. He went to jail during both world wars as a conscientious objector. During WW II. He spent two years in a federal prison for his beliefs. He organized a commune in New Jersey to gather people of like mind.
He was involved in so many social protests for all his life. His main notoriety resulted from his role in anti Vietnam Movement. He was a leader in planning most of the protest against the war. In 1968, he was active in planning and carrying out of the protest. As a result of this protest, he became one of the Chicago 8 trial. He formed lasting relationships with activists such as Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Tom Hayden.
As you read this book, the reader learns about activists and organizations of protest that never received the recognition, but were essential to the protest movement.
Dellinger referred to himself as an anarchic pacifist. He was against war, but yet could support revolutionary movements in Cubs, Nicaragua and Africa.
This book was extremely enlightening about protest and pacifism.