The Renewal Movement: The Peace Testimony and Modern Quakerism

Smith, Allen

doi:10.1353/qkh.1996.0006

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…To comprehend the purpose of testimony in backing detainees, further historical context is needed. Bearing witness has always played an important role for pacifists, perhaps most famously in the Quaker movement (Ceadel 2014; Dandelion 2008; Smith 1996). The Quaker view holds that it is a Christian duty to oppose war in the broadest possible sense, and testimony is an important part of its strategy for resisting advocacy for and contributions to war.…”

Section: Two Modes Of Pacifist Utopianism: Prefiguration and Testimonymentioning

confidence: 99%

Peace as a Minor, Grounded Utopia: On Prefigurative and Testimonial Pacifism

Thaler¹

2019

Perspect. polit.

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A common complaint about pacifism holds that it is utopian, in a pejorative sense. The worry can take various forms and directions, but when it is couched in terms of just war theory it usually includes accusations of pacifism’s immorality, inconsistency and impracticality. Contemporary defenders of pacifism have responded to this complaint by delineating a highly sophisticated, empirically informed account of pacifism that foregrounds its real-world effectiveness. This article takes a different route to vindicating pacifism via a more nuanced picture of what is specifically utopian about it. I propose that peace, in at least some of its guises, can be described as a minor, grounded utopia; it is a desire for an alternative future without war and violence, whose pursuit blurs the boundaries between thought and action. Reconstructing both prefiguration and testimony as practical modes of this kind of pacifism, I maintain that minor, grounded utopias are sites rife with conflict and contestation.

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Section: Two Modes Of Pacifist Utopianism: Prefiguration and Testimonymentioning

confidence: 99%

Peace as a Minor, Grounded Utopia: On Prefigurative and Testimonial Pacifism

Thaler¹

2019

Perspect. polit.

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“…A. Smith (1996Smith ( , 1998 notes that Quakers served in the American Civil War and in World Wars I (WWI) and II (WWII); although, where possible, Quakers prefer to resolve conflict in a peaceful manner, seeing all parties as essentially interested in peaceful coexistence. The AFSC, the group who published each of the documents I will now examine, were the practical embodiment of the Quaker value system and directly sought to intervene in international conflict.…”

Section: Quakerismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Smith 1996). The initial remit of this group was to offer Quakers and other conscientious objectors to WWI an alternative role in this conflict, other than direct military involvement (AFSC History 2007).…”

Section: The American Friends Service Committeementioning

confidence: 99%

Quaker Travels, Fellow Traveler?

Tadajewski

2009

Journal of Macromarketing

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This article will add an important detail to our knowledge of Wroe Alderson’s life, namely his journey to Russia at the height of the cold war and the subsequent intelligence gathering efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following Alderson’s return from Russia in 1955. It does this by situating the text (AFSC 1956) that resulted from the journey in its historical context, connecting the trip to Russia with the Quaker value system that motivated the expedition. These values are, in turn, related to the files of the FBI via a brief review of the relevant volumes of FBI files that referred to the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)—the group that Alderson traveled to Russia with. Using the Quaker publication coauthored by Alderson that details the journey to Russia, this article reconstructs the arguments found in that text. Finally, the author examines why Alderson attracted the attention of the FBI. His characteristic willingness to critique the assertions of a party of Soviet individuals with whom he met, as well as support for Alderson from an unknown Quaker associated with the FBI, would ensure that his credentials as an American patriot were never in danger.

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“…Many of the initiators and participants in the Golden Rule effort were members of the Society of Friends. NVAANW epitomized what historian Allen Smith has described as the Quaker Renewal Movement, 28 which prompted convinced Friends such as Albert Bigelow, Larry Scott, and Dorothy Hutchinson to undertake activism that applied the Quaker Peace Testimony to the nuclear age. Dorothy Hutchinson's activist career followed a path akin to those of her Quaker foremothers Lucretia Mott, Angelina and Sarah Grimké, and Susan B. Anthony.…”

Section: Nor Does Maurice Isserman Mention It In If I Had a Hammermentioning

confidence: 99%

House Guest of the AEC: Dorothy Hutchinson, the 1958 Fast at the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Domestication of Protest

Hostetter

2009

Peace & Change

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Quaker peace activist Dorothy Hutchinson joined a fast against nuclear weapons testing at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) headquarters during Mother's Day weekend in 1958. Supporting the crew of the Golden Rule, then in jail in Honolulu for sailing into a nuclear testing zone, the fasters demanded a meeting with AEC chairman Lewis Strauss. The protest helped the Golden Rule's message resonate with the political culture of the day. Hutchinson's activism combined successfully the pragmatic peace activism of the years between the world wars with the direct action protest born from the existential angst of the nuclear age.

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The Renewal Movement: The Peace Testimony and Modern Quakerism

Cited by 10 publications

References 22 publications

Peace as a Minor, Grounded Utopia: On Prefigurative and Testimonial Pacifism

Peace as a Minor, Grounded Utopia: On Prefigurative and Testimonial Pacifism

Quaker Travels, Fellow Traveler?

House Guest of the AEC: Dorothy Hutchinson, the 1958 Fast at the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Domestication of Protest

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