Women Against the Good War: Conscientious Objection and Gender on the American Home Front, 1941-1947

by Rachel Waltner Goossen

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807846728
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	11/17/1997
Series:	Gender and American Culture
Edition description:	1
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.45(d)
Lexile:	1560L (what's this?)

About the Author

Rachel Waltner Goossen teaches history at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Conscripting of Civilians
Chapter 2. Am I Worth Dying For?
Chapter 3. No Girl Should Marry into This Kind of Life
Chapter 4. Looking for a Few Good Women
Chapter 5. Collegiate Women Pacifists
Chapter 6. In the Aftermath of War
Conclusion
Appendix: Questionnaire on Women and Civilian Public Service
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Illustrations and Tables

Illustrations
Staff and C.O.s at the first CPS camp to open, Patapsco, Maryland, May 1941
U.S. Forest Service work performed by conscientious objectors at Royalston, Massachusetts
Map of Civilian Public Service locations
Lew Ayres, star of the film All Quiet on the Western Front, en route to a CPS camp in Oregon
Conscientious objector in staff quarters at Cleveland State Hospital, Ohio
The 1945 wedding of Patricia Kennedy and Harry Burks in Missoula, MontanaCivilian Public Service workers ice-skating at Terry, Montana, 1945
Civilian Public Service couples at Saturday night dance, Trenton, North Dakota
Chloe Goosen, daughter of the camp director at North Fork, California, 1943
Marlene Wiebe, daughter of camp staff, in her playhouse near Hill City, South Dakota
Tony Potts celebrating his fifth birthday in the camp at Royalston, Massachusetts
Families of conscientious objectors assigned to work at Marlboro State Hospital in New Jersey, 1945
Nursery for infants of conscientious objectors on the premises of Marlboro State Hospital, 1945
Eloise Zabel serving food in thewomen's section of Marlboro State Hospital in New Jersey, 1946
Civilian Public Service cooking school and kitchen crew at North Fork, California, 1943
U.S. Army Nurse Corps Mary Duerksen, nurse at Lapine, Oregon
Edna Peters, nurse at Hill City, South Dakota
Smoke jumpers in Civilian Public Service at Missoula, Montana
Food supply at the camp in Terry, Montana, 1945
Americans line up to receive sugar rations in Detroit, 1942
Keeping up with news of the war in 1945
Members of the China Unit, May 1943
"C.O. Girls" with patients at the state hospital in Howard, Rhode Island, 1944
The Women's Summer Service Unit at Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1945.
Ruth Miller volunteering at Cleveland State Hospital, 1946
Robert and Rachel Fisher, C.O. couple in private quarters at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan
Margarita Will, social worker and wife, visiting a rural family near Casta¤er, Puerto Rico, 1945
Conscientious objectors campaigning near the U.S. State Department for amnesty for imprisoned C.O.s

Tables
Table 2.1 Questionnaire and Oral History Respondents' Primary Association with Civilian Public Service
Table 2.2 Questionnaire and Oral History Respondents' Wartime Religious Affiliation
Table 2.3 Questionnaire and Oral History Respondents' Wartime Educational Status
Table 3.1 Questionnaire and Oral History Respondents' Wartime Marital Status
Table 3.2 Questionnaire and Oral History Respondents' Wartime Maternal Status

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

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

Editorial Reviews

[A]n important contribution to the new history of World War II, which challenges the long-held assumptions.

Amy Swerdlow, author of "Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s"

"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

ÝA¨n important contribution to the new history of World War II, which challenges the long-held assumptions.

Amy Swerdlow, author of "Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s"

Clear, well organized, and accessible to a general readership. This story essentially has never been told.

"History: Reviews of New Books"

""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"

"[A]n important contribution to the new history of World War II, which challenges the long-held assumptions.

Amy Swerdlow, author of "Women Strike for Peace: Traditional Motherhood and Radical Politics in the 1960s""

"Clear, well organized, and accessible to a general readership. This story essentially has never been told.

"History: Reviews of New Books""

From the Publisher