Description
Book SynopsisRallying today to the call for nuclear disarmament, the peace movement in Canada is strong and growing. But it is by no means new. In this study of pacifism during the first half of the twentieth century, Thomas Socknat explores a critical chapter in the Canadian peace movement’s history. Canada’s pacifist heritage, he argues, is rooted in two distinct but complementary traditions, the historic non-resistance of religious sects such as the Mennonites and the liberal Protestant and humanitarian tradition associated with the social reform movement.
The First World War radicalized pacifists, and the interwar era saw a resurgent peace movement shaped by a socially radical pacifism. During the Depression a pacifist-socialist alliance appeared to be in the vanguard of Canadian social action. But by the mid-thirties, pacifists found their pursuit of social justice in direct conflict with their commitment to non-violence. As social radicals began to abandon pacifism for
