Troublesome People: The Warriors of Pacifism

Under the term ""pacifist,'' London Times reporter Moorehead (Fortune's Hostages, etc.), gathers those who, out of deeply felt rationality, humanism or religious conviction, have defended peace or challenged the power of the state. Protest movements sparked by World Wars I and II were succeeded by Gandhi's passive resistance against the British, Martin Luther King's civil rights marches and worldwide antinuclear demonstrations. While tracing the various international peace initiatives and reviewing pacifist-inspired literature, the author incisively portrays not only such well known individuals as Bertrand Russell, Pastor Martin Niemoeller, Bayard Rustin and the Berrigan brothers, but a wide variety of men and women (many of whom she interviewed) related only by their common determination to oppose violence of any kind, even if it meant brutal imprisonment, torture or even death. Although the book focuses on British pacifists, Moorehead also devotes chapters to the specific concerns of groups in Japan, East and West Germany, and the U.S. (July 28)