Book description
"Akst argues that the modern progressive movement, wide-ranging in its causes and narratives today, has origins in the pacifist response to American involvement in World War II... At its best, one gets the sense of generative force born from such intense intellectual, moral and religious pressure." -- The Washington Post…
Why read it?
1 author picked War By Other Means as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I found Akst’s book revelatory, opening up a whole sphere of American history between the world wars that I was only vaguely aware of.
I was moved by the sheer moral tenacity of men and women who refused to accept the necessity for war under any circumstances. His four central characters – Black activist Bayard Rustin, Catholic radical Dorothy Day, the religious intellectual David Dellinger, and leftwing journalist Dwight Macdonald – struggled for their values at great personal cost to themselves.
Akst, who writes beautifully, is a sympathetic but critical narrator who shows persuasively that techniques that the pacifists developed…
If you love War By Other Means...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like War By Other Means?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like War By Other Means.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,277
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like War By Other Means, you might also like...
The Bridge
The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circular…
And Then They Were Gone
Of the 918 Americans who died in the shocking murder-suicides of November 18, 1978, in the tiny South American country of Guyana, a third were under eighteen. More than half were in their twenties or younger.
The authors taught in a small high school in San Francisco where Reverend Jim…
