Felon for Peace: The Memoir of a Vietnam-Era Draft Resister (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780826514950)

When Jerry Elmer turned eighteen at the height of the Vietnam War, he publicly refused to register for the draft, a felony then and now. Later he burglarized the offices of fourteen draft boards in three cities, destroying the files of men eligible to be drafted. After working almost twenty years in the peace movement, he attended law school, where he was the only convicted felon in Harvard's class of 1990.

This book is a blend of personal memoir, contemporary history, and astute political analysis. Elmer draws on a variety of sources, including never-before-released FBI files, and argues passionately for the practice of nonviolence. He describes the range of actions he took--from draft card burning to organizing draft board raids with Father Phil Berrigan; from vigils on the Capitol steps inside "tiger cages" used to torture Vietnamese political prisoners to jail time for protesting nuclear power plants; from a tour of the killing fields of Cambodia to meetings with Corazon Aquino in the Philippines.

A Vietnamese-language edition of Felon for Peace has also been published.

Author: Jerry Elmer
ISBN-10: 0826514952
ISBN-13: 9780826514950
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/09/2005
Pages: 280
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.04h x 6.10w x 0.72d

Review Citation(s):
Univ PR Books for Public Libry 01/01/2006 pg. 1 - Strongly Recommended