{"product_id":"working-for-peace-and-justice-memoirs-of-an-activist-intellectual-9781572338579","title":"Working for Peace and Justice: Memoirs of an Activist Intellectual","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA longtime agitator against war and social injustice, Lawrence Wittner has been tear-gassed, threatened by police with drawn guns, charged by soldiers with fixed bayonets, spied upon by the U.S. government, arrested, and purged from his job for political -reasons. To say that this teacher-historian-activist has led an interesting life is a considerable understatement. \u003c\/p\u003e     \u003cp\u003e In this absorbing memoir, Wittner traces the dramatic course of a life and career that took him from a Brooklyn boyhood in the 1940s and ’50s to an education at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin to the front lines of peace activism, the fight for racial equality, and the struggles of the labour movement. He details his family background, which included the bloody anti-Semitic pogroms of late-nineteenth-century Eastern Europe, and chronicles his long teaching career, which comprised positions at a small black college in Virginia, an elite women’s liberal arts college north of New York City, and finally a permanent home at the Albany campus of the State University of New York. Throughout, he packs the narrative with colourful vignettes describing such activities as fighting racism in Louisiana and Mississippi during the early 1960s, collaborating with peace-oriented intellectuals in Gorbachev’s Soviet Union, and leading thousands of antinuclear demonstrators through the streets of Hiroshima. As the book also reveals, Wittner’s work as an activist was matched by scholarly achievements that made him one of the world’s foremost authorities on the history of the peace and nuclear disarmament movements—a research specialty that led to revealing encounters with such diverse figures as Norman Thomas, the Unabomber, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Caspar Weinberger, and David Horowitz. \u003c\/p\u003e     \u003cp\u003eA tenured professor and renowned author who has nevertheless lived in tension with the broader currents of his society, Lawrence Wittner tells an engaging personal story that includes some of the most turbulent and significant events of recent history. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Larry Wittner's life and work are inspiring on their own, but he recounts them in such a frank, open manner that he has crafted a real page-turner. Working for Peace and Justice takes you along on a joyful ride of discovery through the life of a model citizen\/scholar\/activist.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Scholar, activist, and troubadour Larry Wittner has gifted us with his  bold life’s journey for world betterment. Vividly written and deeply  moving, this timely, splendid book will inform and hearten everyone  concerned about peace and freedom, justice, democracy, and human  rights.”\u003cbr\u003e—Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt and Distinguished  Professor of History and Women’s Studies, John Jay College \u0026amp;  Graduate Center, CUNY\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“The season has come for memoirs of the children of the 1960s who became  academics and changed the academy, and this memoir is a jewel of the  genre: wonderfully lucid, evocative, honest, unpretentious, precise, and  interesting. Larry Wittner’s splendid account reflects his deep  good-spiritedness and describes his many years of activist struggle for  peace and social justice.”\u003cbr\u003e?Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics, Union  Theological Seminary; Professor of Religion, Columbia University\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“It is fascinating to peer into the personal life of Lawrence  Wittner—the great chronicler of the antinuclear movement—in this quite  amazing autobiography. He has lived an exemplary life, one that we all  should try and emulate in our own individual ways.”\u003cbr\u003e?Helen Caldicott, Founding President, Physicians for Social Responsibility\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Working for Peace and Justice provides a readable narrative of what it  takes and the price one pays when the choice is made both to live a life  of thought and contemplation and to act on a genuine commitment to make  the world a safer and better place. Whether he was formulating ideas  for world peace or walking a picket line, Larry Wittner was there and  his impact was felt. We can all learn lessons from this wonderful  memoir.”\u003cbr\u003e?Bill Scheuerman, former President, United University Professions; retired President, National Labor College\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Larry Wittner's engaging and important memoir reminds me of why his  work, his scholarship, and his activism have made me proud to be an  American historian. It is a record of democratic social struggle, as  well as a gift to those in the next generation who will have the courage  and ambition to follow his example of working for a better world.\"\u003cbr\u003e?Martin J. Sherwin, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e“Larry Wittner has been—and remains—a great union activist. Read this book and\u003cbr\u003eyou’ll learn what Solidarity really means!”\u003cbr\u003e?Bill Ritchie, President, Albany County Central Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Tennessee Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53188725473623,"sku":"9781572338579","price":29.66,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/working-for-peace-and-justice-memoirs-of-an-activist-intellectual-9781572338579","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}