NORTHERN PASSAGE: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada

From the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 to the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Vietnam War was at the molten center of American politics and dominated the American psyche. To historians, political scientists and sociologists, the war was a transformative event both culturally and politically. For thousands of draft-age Americans, including both men and women whose political convictions were engaged, the war's effect was immediate and profound. Writing for two audiences, Hagan, a professor of sociology and law at both Northwestern University and the University of Toronto, presents an earnest, thoughtful and respectful examination of American draft resisters who emigrated to Canada—as he did himself—rather than serve in the U.S. armed forces. Fellow academicians will welcome the parts of the book that are steeped in arcane and esoteric political process theory. General readers, particularly those of a certain age who were keenly conscious of America's involvement in Vietnam, will be interested in better understanding the new lives the emigrants made. To that end, Hagan poses questions whose answers illuminate the consequences, good and bad, of self-imposed exile. Moreover, informed by the Canadian perspective, the end result is far more than a mere reflection of the much-studied America of the Vietnam era. This is a very well-researched, scrupulously honest and generous book that gets facts right and seeks to set aside the divisive judgments of the time. Illus. (May 31)