Dangerous Grounds

Antiwar Coffeehouses and Military Dissent in the Vietnam Era

By David L. Parsons

Dangerous Grounds View Inside

176 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, notes, bibl., index

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-3201-8
    Published: May 2017
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-4785-0
    Published: March 2017
  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-6155-1
    Published: August 2020
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-3202-5
    Published: March 2017

Buy this Book

For Professors:
Free E-Exam Copies

To purchase online via an independent bookstore, visit Bookshop.org

Follow the Author on Twitter

As the Vietnam War divided the nation, a network of antiwar coffeehouses appeared in the towns and cities outside American military bases. Owned and operated by civilian activists, GI coffeehouses served as off-base refuges for the growing number of active-duty soldiers resisting the war. In the first history of this network, David L. Parsons shows how antiwar GIs and civilians united to battle local authorities, vigilante groups, and the military establishment itself by building a dynamic peace movement within the armed forces.

Peopled with lively characters and set in the tense environs of base towns around the country, this book complicates the often misunderstood relationship between the civilian antiwar movement, U.S. soldiers, and military officials during the Vietnam era. Using a broad set of primary and secondary sources, Parsons shows us a critical moment in the history of the Vietnam-era antiwar movement, when a chain of counterculture coffeehouses brought the war's turbulent politics directly to the American military's doorstep.

About the Author

David L. Parsons teaches history and communication at California State University, Channel Islands, and hosts a long-running podcast on history and politics called The Nostalgia Trap.
For more information about David L. Parsons, visit the Author Page.

Quick Links

Permissions Information

Subsidiary Rights Information

Media Inquiries

Related Subjects

Military History

Related Books

Working-Class War
Not a Gentleman's War