Peace Action Past, Present, and Future

Foreword - U.S. Congresswoman 1. A Short History of Peace Action 2. The Beginnings of SANE 3. SANE’s Early Years 4. The Vietnam War and SANE’s Change of Focus 5. SANE Reborn 6. How the Freeze Campaign’s Unifying Idea Empowered Us 7. The Freeze Grassroots Strategy: Building the Movement 8. Blessed Are the Peacemakers: People of Faith and the Freeze 9. Women in the Antinuclear Movement 10. The Founding and Early Years of Peace Action 11. Peace Action: 50 Years in the International Peace Movement 12. The Strength of Peace Action’s Affiliate Network: A View from the Left Coast 13. Peace Action Today 14. Real Security in the Future: International Cooperation, Human Rights, and Freedom from Weapons of Mass Destruction

Biography

Glen Harold Stassen, Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary, He served on the International Committee, co-chaired the Strategy Committee, and chaired the Euromissile Committee of the Freeze Campaign; and is a board member of Peace Action. Lawrence Wittner, professor of history at the State University of New York/Albany, has written or edited numerous books on peace and foreign policy issues, including the award-winning trilogy, The Struggle Against the Bomb. A former president of the Peace History Society, he has been active for decades in peace, racial equality, and labor organizations. He is currently a National Board member of Peace Action.

“What impressed me about Peace Action was that it was able to harness people’s spirit and idealism and the incredible disgust with certain U.S. policies—whether with the war in Vietnam, nuclear proliferation, arms sales, Pentagon pork, or the war in Iraq—and channel it not simply into acts of protest, but into effective action geared toward changing the way our government works by involving people in the process.”
—U.S. Representative Barbara Lee (D-California), from the Foreword

“Anybody concerned with avoiding nuclear annihilation, and with world peace in general, will find a treasure trove in this book. The voices of those who have created and led Peace Action groups not only provide valuable recent history but convey the kind of passionate wisdom that needs to be applied to our present world.”
—Dr. Robert J. Lifton, author of Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima

“This timely book recalls the difference SANE/Freeze made in slowing the nuclear arms race, reflects on lessons learned, and encourages us to renew our work for a saner, more peaceful world. The essays on the participation of women, faith communities, and grass-roots organizing are a refreshing addition to the history of Peace Action.”
—Pamela K. Brubaker, California Lutheran University, author of Globalization at What Price?

“At age 9, in 1970, our younger son looked at a TV image of an exploding nuclear bomb, and he murmured, ‘I hope I grow up to be an adult.’ He did. For that fact, multiplied among millions of us in the post-1945 world, we are indebted to certain fellow citizens and wise politicians who kept saying that to plan a nuclear war is to plan humanity's suicide. No organization said it more consistently than SANE/Freeze, now named Peace Action. This book is a history of that movement by those who led it. To read these chapters is to thank God for the prophets among us who not only dream of world peace but who insist it is the only truly realistic dream.”
—Donald W. Shriver, Jr., President Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary, New York

“Peace has become the vocation of every human being. Either we toil for a nonviolent future or we will suffer an unthinkable catastrophe. And there's precious little time. This book will help with its practical strategies and vision.”
—Walter Wink, Professor Emeritus, Auburn Theological Seminary, author of Engaging the Powers

“This book has given me renewed hope for the peace work that we do…Equally important it has reminded me that some of our best ideas are old ideas that are new again.
—Janette Watt, Peace Reviews

“In celebrations of its 50th anniversary, Glen Harold Stassen and Lawrence S. Wittner have edited, Peace Action: Past, Present, and Future – a collection of essays written by many of the courageous men and women who led the group and whom Schell described in a recent exchange in The Nation as “remain[ing] faithful and active in a cause in the lean years as well as the fat.”
—Katrina Vanden Heuvel, The Nation

“This collection of essays lives up to its title—exploring the ‘past, present, and future’ of Peace Action, the largest grassroots organization in U.S. history. … Stasses and Wittner did an excellent job of editing the book. Each contribution is relatively short and clearly written, offers insight on Peace Action’s achievements as well as its defeats, and provides a treasure trove of inspiration and wisdom for anti-war activists today.”
—Leilah Danielson, History News Network

“Peace Action is a handy and short introduction to the U.S. peace movement that can be useful in college or high school courses. It can also be a tool for activist groups, as it provides strategic insights that can be useful to contemporary peace and justice organizers.”
—Jackie Smith, Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame