PROTEST, PACIFISM AND POLITICS

Though Finn says that his general purpose is to explore the current anti-war protest in the U.S., the left wing of ""the movement"" is barely represented. Still, the pacifist emphasis is indicated by the title and within its terms the book does an excellent Job of evoking the complex and often ambivalent character of pacifism 60's style. Of the thirty-eight interviewees, fifteen fall into the ""religious category"" (including Heschel and the Berrigans); thirteen are conscientious objectors, pacifists, or ""committed without a label"" (including Muste, Lynd and Baez); eight are ""political"" (including Rustin and Dorothy Day). Finn has used the technique to great advantage: the exchanges are solid and the protesters candid. The religious protesters analyze, among other things, various doctrine of ""Just war""; peaceniks set forth conflicts of principle and resulting qualifications of ""absolute pacifism,"" Julian Bond and John Lewis uphold the non-violent tradition of SNCC. The book offers a probing acquaintance with an important segment of draft-card burners and significant organizations--it also constitutes an exception to Mennonite Paul Peachey's observation that the pacifists have been too abstruse or ineffective to make fruitful conversational partners.