Description
Book SynopsisThis insider's account of the antiwar and student protest movements of the '60s also provides a rare look at the prison experiences of Vietnam-era draft resisters.
Trade Review[Dancis] had been an antiwar activist of the first rank at Cornell University and had spent 19 months in federal prison for draft resistance. Resister is Bruce's memoir of those years, and it too is keenly intelligent, soft-spoken, and possessed of a quiet dignity.
-- Robert Westbrook * The Christian Century *
Above all, Dancis distinguished himself with the depth of his resistance to the draft. With other resisters, Dancis made a public showing of his opposition, forswearing the student deferment he could easily have garnered and destroying at a rally his Selective Service card to tempt authorities to prosecute him. More than displays of personal conviction, Dancis reminds us, such acts were envisioned as a way to literally sabotage the war. The early hope was that a growing wave of this resistance would jam the courts and then the jails, imposing both an administrative and moral burden American society could not bear.... By some socio-historic alchemy we may never understand, an uncommon number of young people felt in the 1960s that it was both their right and obligation to resist injustice, and to do so fairly anonymously, with little thought of personal plaudits. In today's world of ubiquitous celebrity and self-aggrandizement, Dancis's humility as he served that obligation is both refreshing and instructive. One senses that he never felt himself a hero. Setting a positive example that others might follow to achieve a moral goal was his steadfast priority.... By the end, I concluded that his impassive, observant tone is essential to who he is: a profoundly decent and thoughtful man, with an unshakable moral compass, and an intent to do the right thing with precision and follow-through.
-- Jeremy Varon * Los Angeles Review of Books *
In Resister: A Story of Protest and Prison During the Vietnam War, Dancis, as candid and cleareyed as he was a half-century earlier, escorts readers on a backstage tour of the antiwar movement and the evolution of a democratic socialist. Dancis, who would become an editor, critic and writer, also had the courage of his conviction—he was sentenced to federal prison after tearing up his card (the day was too windy for it to burn). He also encouraged others to take part in a mass draft-card burning.
-- Sam Roberts * New York Times *
Table of ContentsPART ONE: THE MAKING OF A DRAFT RESISTER
1. Boy from the Bronx
2. Socialism in Two Summer Communities
PART TWO: THE MOVEMENT AGAINST THE WAR, THE DRAFT, AND UNIVERSITY COMPLICITY
3. First Year at Cornell: Runs, Pledges, and Sit-Ins
4. Tenant Organizing in East Harlem
5. From Protest to Resistance
6. Draft Cards Are for Burning
7. The Summer of Love and Disobedience
8. The Resistance
9. SDS, South Africa, and the Security Index
10. From Resistance to Revolution
11. Trials and Tribulations
12. Rebellion and Factionalism in Black and White
13. Brinksmanship, or Cornell on the BrinkPART THREE: FEDERAL PRISON
14. Safety and Survival in My New Kentucky Home
15. A Typical Day in Prison, and a Few That Weren't
16. Politics in Prison, or Keeping Up with the Outside World
17. Getting Out
PART FOUR: EPILOGUE
18. Did We End the War? Did Draft Resistance Matter?
