THE ACCLAIMED BOOK, NOW IN PAPERBACK, with a reading group guide and a new afterword by the author. At the height of the Cold War, JFK risked committing the greatest crime in human history: starting a nuclear war. Horrified by the specter of nuclear annihilation, Kennedy gradually turned away from his long-held Cold Warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But to the military and intelligence agencies in the United States, who were committed to winning the Cold War at any cost, Kennedy’s change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence. Once these dark "Unspeakable" forces recognized that Kennedy’s interests were in direct opposition to their own, they tagged him as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent cover-up. Douglass takes readers into the Oval Office during the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, along on the strange journey of Lee Harvey Oswald and his shadowy handlers, and to the winding road in Dallas where an ambush awaited the President’s motorcade. As Douglass convincingly documents, at every step along the way these forces of the Unspeakable were present, moving people like pawns on a chessboard to promote a dangerous and deadly agenda.
In this, his most eloquent and far-reaching book, James Douglass explores the haunting parallels between the situation of Jesus and our situation today. Jesus, who lived in anticipation of the impending destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and suffered from this vision, called urgently for a radical conversion to avert the tragedy. The choice then -- as now -- was between nonviolence and nonexistence. This choice is even more stark in the nuclear age. Whether describing the visions of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Archbishop Romero, or the witness of his own community against the White Train carrying warheads across the country, Douglass can discern the sights of a second coming, a nonviolent coming of God. The possibility for a different future depends on a different kind of humanity, renewed and transformed by the nonviolent cross of Christ.
In 1948, at the dawn of his country's independence, Mohandas Gandhi, father of the Indian independence movement and a beloved prophet of nonviolence, was assassinated by Hindu nationalists. In riveting detail, author James W. Douglass shows as he previously did with the story of JFK how police and security forces were complicit in the assassination and how in killing one man, they hoped to destroy his vision of peace, nonviolence, and reconciliation. Gandhi had long anticipated and prepared for this fate. In reviewing the little-known story of his early "experiments in truth" in South Africa the laboratory for Gandhi's philosophy of satyagraha, or truth force Douglass shows how early he confronted and overcame the fear of death. And, as with his account of JFK's death, he shows why this story matters: what we can learn from Gandhi's truth in the struggle for peace and reconciliation today.
I rejoice in this day and in this book becoming available once again. At Jonah House, the place I've called home for 33 years, we've had numerous copies of it in the years since it was first published. One copy remains - dog-eared, read, reread, studied. It was a book that we reflected on together in community - the backbone, if you will, next to the Scriptures - of our on-going resistance out of community. Elizabeth McAlister, Jonah House (from the foreword) This book has been of extraordinary significance to large numbers of young people, resisters, prisoners, searchers, many who have been increasingly perplexed and anguished by the course of American life in the world. My brother Philip and I have used it in numerous sessions with students and others, who found in it the sustenance necessary to allow them to take the next step in their struggle on behalf of life. It seems to me that this book will continue, in its own quiet and persistent way, to reach those Americans who are capable of inviting us into any future worth speaking about. Daniel Berrigan From perspectives of truth, nonviolence and resistance to personal and cultural violence, this book is among the few important books of the last decade. Neutrality to this book is impossible -- people will view it as a gift, or they will reject it as a threat....enlightening, strengthening, liberating. Philip Berrigan Jim Douglass is a writer and a Catholic Worker. He and his wife Shelley are co-founders of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, WA, and Mary's House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality in Birmingham, AL. He is currently writing three books on the assassinations of the Kennedys, Malcom X and King in the 1960's (with Orbis Books). The James Douglass Reprint Series: The Non-Violent Cross Resistance and Contemplation Lightning East to West The Nonviolent Coming of God
On July 5th, 1852, Frederick Douglass, one of the greatest orators of all time, delivered what was arguably the century's most powerful abolition speech. At a time of year where American freedom is celebrated across the nation, Douglass eloquently summoned the country to resolve the contradiction between slavery and the founding principles of our country. In this book, James A. Colaiaco vividly recreates the turbulent historical context of Douglass' speech and delivers a colorful portrait of the country in the turbulent years leading to the civil war. This book provides a fascinating new perspective on a critical time in American history.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
One of the ten best religious books of 1968 . . . a fascinating proposal of revolutionary action through non-violence from the Judeo-Christian faith and the experiments in truth of Gandhi. 'New Book Review' 'The Non-Violent Cross' was a crucial text to push me into becoming a pacifist. It remains as relevant today as it was when first published in 1966. Douglass was in conversation not only with Catholic perspectives but also John Howard Yoder. Indeed he was among the first to show us how the most orthodox Christian claims committed the church to the practice of non-violence. We are in Wipf & Stock's debt for bringing the book back into print. Stanley Hauerwas, Duke University It will be Jim's reflections on nonviolence and just war theory for which he will be remembered best. And it is here that his language stretches, bends, and breaks under the strain of the inexplicable. For he is not just settling arguments. He is trying to convey the meaning of the kingdom of Reality which will be the final victory of Truth in history. If that kingdom is ever to come, it will be people like Jim who blazed the way. Walter Wink Not only is this book the most thoroughgoing treatment to date of non-violence...but in its analyses of the current scene it is also a 'tract for the times.' The Christian Century
With our American Philosophy and Religion series, Applewood reissues many primary sources published throughout American history. Through these books, scholars, interpreters, students, and non-academics alike can see the thoughts and beliefs of Americans who came before us.
War is waged not only on battlefields. In the mid-1980s a high-stakes political struggle to redesign the relationships among the president, secretary of defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and warfighting commanders in the field resulted in the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. Author James R. Locher III played a key role in the congressional effort to repair a dysfunctional military whose interservice squabbling had cost American taxpayers billions of dollars and put the lives of thousands of servicemen and women at risk. Victory on this front helped make possible the military successes the United States has enjoyed since the passage of the bill and to prepare it for the challenges it must still face.Victory on the Potomac provides the first detailed history of how Congress unified the Pentagon and does so with the benefit of an insider's view. In a fast-paced account that reads like a novel, Locher follows the bill through congressional committee to final passage, making clear that the process is neither abstract nor automatic. His vivid descriptions bring to life the amazing cast of this real-life drama, from the straight-shooting chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Barry Goldwater, to the peevishly stubborn secretary of defense, Caspear Weinberger.Locher's analysis of political maneuvering and bureaucratic infighting will fascinate anyone who has an interest in how government works, and his understanding of the stakes in military reorganization will make clear why this legislative victory meant so much to American military capability. James R. Locher III, a graduate of West Point and Harvard Business School began his career in Washington as an executive trainee in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has worked in the White House, the Pentagon, and the Senate. During the period covered by this book, he was a staff member for the Senate Committee on Armed Services. Since then, he has served as an assistant secretary of defense in the first Bush and the early Clinton administrations. Currently, he works as a consultant and lecturer on defense matters.
In this, his most eloquent and far-reaching book, James Douglass explores the haunting parallels between the situation of Jesus and our situation today. Jesus, who lived in anticipation of the impending destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and suffered from this vision, called urgently for a radical conversion to avert the tragedy. The choice then -- as now -- was between nonviolence and nonexistence. This choice is even more stark in the nuclear age. Whether describing the visions of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Archbishop Romero, or the witness of his own community against the White Train carrying warheads across the country, Douglass can discern the sights of a second coming, a nonviolent coming of God. The possibility for a different future depends on a different kind of humanity, renewed and transformed by the nonviolent cross of Christ.
THE ACCLAIMED BOOK, NOW IN PAPERBACK, with a reading group guide and a new afterword by the author. At the height of the Cold War, JFK risked committing the greatest crime in human history: starting a nuclear war. Horrified by the specter of nuclear annihilation, Kennedy gradually turned away from his long-held Cold Warrior beliefs and toward a policy of lasting peace. But to the military and intelligence agencies in the United States, who were committed to winning the Cold War at any cost, Kennedy’s change of heart was a direct threat to their power and influence. Once these dark "Unspeakable" forces recognized that Kennedy’s interests were in direct opposition to their own, they tagged him as a dangerous traitor, plotted his assassination, and orchestrated the subsequent cover-up. Douglass takes readers into the Oval Office during the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, along on the strange journey of Lee Harvey Oswald and his shadowy handlers, and to the winding road in Dallas where an ambush awaited the President’s motorcade. As Douglass convincingly documents, at every step along the way these forces of the Unspeakable were present, moving people like pawns on a chessboard to promote a dangerous and deadly agenda.
We live in that final time which offers humans the clearest choice in history: the kingdom or the holocaust, Jim Douglass writes. Either end is a lightning east to west: the nuclear holocaust a lightning fire, the kingdom of Reality a lightning spirit. We will choose lightning east to west today as either nuclear fire or the kingdom of God, as either despair and annihilation or transformation through nonviolence. If we look to Jesus and Gandhi, and what they point to, we can hope to choose the lightning fire of nonviolence.
In 1948, at the dawn of his country's independence, Mohandas Gandhi, father of the Indian independence movement and a beloved prophet of nonviolence, was assassinated by Hindu nationalists. In riveting detail, author James W. Douglass shows as he previously did with the story of JFK how police and security forces were complicit in the assassination and how in killing one man, they hoped to destroy his vision of peace, nonviolence, and reconciliation. Gandhi had long anticipated and prepared for this fate. In reviewing the little-known story of his early "experiments in truth" in South Africa the laboratory for Gandhi's philosophy of satyagraha, or truth force Douglass shows how early he confronted and overcame the fear of death. And, as with his account of JFK's death, he shows why this story matters: what we can learn from Gandhi's truth in the struggle for peace and reconciliation today.
I rejoice in this day and in this book becoming available once again. At Jonah House, the place I've called home for 33 years, we've had numerous copies of it in the years since it was first published. One copy remains - dog-eared, read, reread, studied. It was a book that we reflected on together in community - the backbone, if you will, next to the Scriptures - of our on-going resistance out of community. Elizabeth McAlister, Jonah House (from the foreword) This book has been of extraordinary significance to large numbers of young people, resisters, prisoners, searchers, many who have been increasingly perplexed and anguished by the course of American life in the world. My brother Philip and I have used it in numerous sessions with students and others, who found in it the sustenance necessary to allow them to take the next step in their struggle on behalf of life. It seems to me that this book will continue, in its own quiet and persistent way, to reach those Americans who are capable of inviting us into any future worth speaking about. Daniel Berrigan From perspectives of truth, nonviolence and resistance to personal and cultural violence, this book is among the few important books of the last decade. Neutrality to this book is impossible -- people will view it as a gift, or they will reject it as a threat....enlightening, strengthening, liberating. Philip Berrigan Jim Douglass is a writer and a Catholic Worker. He and his wife Shelley are co-founders of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, WA, and Mary's House, a Catholic Worker house of hospitality in Birmingham, AL. He is currently writing three books on the assassinations of the Kennedys, Malcom X and King in the 1960's (with Orbis Books). The James Douglass Reprint Series: The Non-Violent Cross Resistance and Contemplation Lightning East to West The Nonviolent Coming of God
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.