Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s

This history of a women's antiwar group suffers from the looseness of structure that characterized the group itself. Women Strike for Peace evolved after a protest held in November 1961. But while she describes its founders, its relations with other peace groups and its investigation by HUAC, Swerdlow, a history and women's studies professor at Sarah Lawrence and a founding member, has problems defining the group's activities and accomplishments. The book works best when it gives an overview of women's involvement in antiwar protests in general and against the Vietnam War in particular. Stories like that of Evelyn Whitehorn, who attempted to obtain a restraining order through legal channels in order to keep her 18-year-old son from being drafted, testify to the women's collective political power, although Whitehorn drew WSP's attention through her actions rather than the other way around. Unfortunately, the question of why these women--such as Dagmar Wilson, a children's book illustrator, and Eleanor Garst, a longtime peace activist--insisted on presenting themselves as mothers and housewives is never answered satisfactorily. (Nov.)