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Chargement... Plowing My Own Furrowpar Howard W. Moore
Five star books (762) Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Moore's claim to fame was his nonreligious opposition to WW I. As a conscientious objector he was thrown into prison and severely beaten. Moore was a self-educated man whose formal schooling reached the eighth grade only; but he was a voracious reader who devoured Aristotle, Shaw, Kant, Hegel, and Veblen. His basic argument against war was that it was " futile and its use as an instrument of national policy a confession of moral bankruptcy." When asked, "If you don't believe in God, what sustains you?" he replied, "My own sense of moral responsibility. To accept an authority outside oneself is to deny oneself the right to make an ultimate decision. Understanding that and the consequences likely to follow is to know freedom in the deepest sense." See New Yorker, April 1, 1991 for more information about Moore. This is the autobiography of a man who grew up on a hops farm in early 20th century central New York. Coming from a close-knit family, Moore left home as a teenager to "take on" Manhattan. At age 14, he got a job with the New York Telephone Company as a night switchboard operator at one of the big hotels. The job allowed Moore plenty of time to read, and Moore took advantage of it, devouring Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, Edward Bellamy and Eugene Debs, among others. Moore had little formal education, but he made up for it on his own. Then came World War I, and while the rest of America seemed to be itching to enlist in the military, Moore came to a very different conclusion. He would not fight, nor would he take part in any military activity. The reason was not exactly repugnance at the thought of killing another human being stuck in the same trap as him. It had more to do with a deep conviction that war was futile and its use as an instrument of national policy was confessing to moral bankruptcy. For his beliefs, Moore and a group of other conscientious objectors (CO’s) were court-martialed, sentenced to long prison terms and moved from prison to prison. For a time, they were shackled to the doors of their cells, infested with rats and bedbugs, and forced to stand in one spot, for 8 hours a day. Some of the prison and military personnel tried to be decent and reasonable to the CO’s, while others seemed to delight in mistreating, and severely beating, them at every opportunity. Some of the CO’s accepted freedom in exchange for "alternate service," but not Moore. He insisted on unconditional release, which did not happen until 1920, 2 years after the war ended. His relationship with his family had permanently changed for the worse, so Moore went back to New York City, rising to senior level with the WPA. This is a gem of a book. It is very easy to read, and shows that people objected to war on moral grounds long before Vietnam. For a look at an unknown part of American history, this is very much recommended. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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A memoir written at 95, by America's oldest living conscientious objector. It tells of the harsh treatment meted out to conscientious objectors during World War I, his upbringing in rural upstate New York, and the impact on his thinking by socialist leaders such as Eugene Dobs and Norman Thomas. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)355.2Social sciences Public Administration, Military Science Military Science Military resourcesClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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An important first-hand account of a not-very-well-known episode of American history. ( )