A comprehensive analysis of the U.S. Central America peace movement, Resisting Reagan explains why more than one hundred thousand U.S. citizens marched in the streets, illegally housed refugees, traveled to Central American war zones, committed civil disobedience, and hounded their political representatives to contest the Reagan administration's policy of sponsoring wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Focusing on the movement's three most important national campaigns—Witness for Peace, Sanctuary, and the Pledge of Resistance—this book demonstrates the centrality of morality as a political motivator, highlights the importance of political opportunities in movement outcomes, and examines the social structuring of insurgent consciousness. Based on extensive surveys, interviews, and research, Resisting Reagan makes significant contributions to our understanding of the formation of individual activist identities, of national movement dynamics, and of religious resources for political activism.

In November 1969 tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on Washington, D.C., to protest U.S. involvement in Vietnam. For four days they marched, sang, and made speeches calling for an end to the war; then they dispersed. Who were these people and what brought them together? Who was in charge and what did they hope to accomplish? What real effect did the event have on public opinion or foreign policy? In The American Peace Movement: Ideals and Activism, Charles Chatfield explores such questions as they relate to the peace movement from the early nineteenth century up to the present. Combining a broad historical scope with a sociological perspective, the study examines the movement as a social process--an interaction of organizations, strategies, and goals. Chatfield analyzes public attitudes toward peace, war, and foreign policy, and the shifting constituencies of the various peace coalitions as the movement responded to specific challenges of the international situation. Detailed portrayals of events, goals, strategies, and leaders help bring the story of the peace movement vividly to life.

The history of the peace movement in the United States was one of dramatic change: in the mid-IKWs it consisted of a few provincial societies; by 1912 it had become eminently respectable and listed among its members an impressive number of the nation's leaders; by 1918 it was once again weak and remote from those who formulated national policy. Along with these fluctuations went equally substantial changes of leadership and purpose that, as C. Roland Marchand emphasizes, reflected the motives of the various reform groups that successively joined and dominated the movement. Most of those who joined were not devoted solely to the cause of world peace, but saw in the programs of the movement a chance for the fulfillment of their own mare immediately relevant goals. Consequently the story of the peace movement reflects the concerns of such groups as the international lawyers who wanted a world court of arbitration as an alternative to war, the business leaders who believed that international economic stability would be endangered by war, and the labor unions who felt that the working class suffered most in war. Originally published in 1973. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

As the United States tries to grapple with the Soviet downing of the Korean 747, multiple conflicts in Central America and the Middle East, war in Afghanistan, and potential problems in Africa and elsewhere, Charles DeBenedetti's concise and comprehensive survey of the peace movement or movements in American history is more timely than ever. "DeBenedetti... has produced the new synthesis which peace scholarship has so long needed." -- Reviews in American History "[The Peace Reform in American History]conveys forcefully the heterogeneity of the groups... that have made up the drive for peace; it sets developments in their domestic and international context; it relates peace reform to other movements; it is written with verve and clarity." -- Journal of American Studies

With the exception of the newly added introduction and preface, this book is a reprint of the Spring 1972 issue of American studies.