Women Against the Good War

200 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 29 illus., 1 map, 5 tables, appends., notes, bibl., index

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-4672-8
Published: November 1997
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-6172-1
Published: November 2000
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-6891-6
Published: November 2000

Gender and American Culture

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During World War II, more than 12,000 male conscientious objectors seeking alternatives to military service entered Civilian Public Service to do forestry, soil conservation, or other 'work of national importance.' But this government-sponsored, church-supported program also attracted some 2,000 women--most of whom were part of Mennonite, Amish, Brethren, or Quaker families with deeply held antiwar beliefs--to 151 alternative service locations across the country. Rachel Waltner Goossen tells the story of these women against the 'good war,' women who identified themselves as conscientious objectors. Despite cultural hostility and discriminatory federal policies, they sought to demonstrate their humanitarian convictions by taking part in Civilian Public Service work. Based on little-known archival sources as well as oral history interviews and questionnaire responses, Goossen's study reveals the extent to which these women's religious and philosophical beliefs placed them on the margins of American society. Encouraged by religious traditions that prized nonconformity, these women made unusual choices, questioned government dictums, and defied societal expectations, all of which set them apart from the millions of Americans who supported the war effort.

About the Author

Rachel Waltner Goossen teaches history at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana.
For more information about Rachel Waltner Goossen, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

“Clear, well organized, and accessible to a general readership. This story essentially has never been told, and [Goossen’s] account will certainly become the defintive one.”History: Reviews of New Books

"Drawing upon surveys, interviews, and a wealth of unpublished material, Rachel Waltner Goossen tells the story of Mennonite and other women who opposed World War II on religious grounds, often as the wives or sweethearts of conscientious objectors in the wartime Civilian Public Service camps. Goossen explores the ambiguities of these women's situation, and the ways their lives and outlook were profoundly altered by their experience. Women Against the Good War illuminates a little-known but fascinating part of America's homefront history during World War II."--Paul Boyer, Institute for Research in the Humanities

"Women Against the Good War is an important contribution to the new history of World War II, which challenges the long-held assumptions that after Pearl Harbor hardly anyone in the United States opposed the war effort. Goossen's innovative research brings to historical consciousness the fact that draft resistance is not a Vietnam War phenomenon and the role of thousands of pacifist women who actively and publicly opposed the war by joining the ten thousand men in C.O. camps and performing other forms of alternative service, often sacrificing career goals and an adequate livelihood."--Amy Swerdlow, author of Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s