Congratulations on the next book! I look forward to reading it.
I have a few names to suggest for consideration or further information:
1) Dorothy Day, the founder of The Catholic Worker movement was deeply involved in protests during her life. She understood protests as part of an expression of her faith and participated in protests until she was no longer physically able to protest. In many ways, The Catholic Worker movement is a daily-lived protest against capitalism, war, and American injustices.
2) Mennonite Action, mennoniteaction.org is a recent movement protesting the war in Gaza. And while there has been a peace-settlement between Israel and Gaza there remains much to do for Palestinians to recover. Joanna Lawrence Shenk is one of the organizers of Mennonite Action and would be a helpful woman to interview.
3) Mennonites have a different view of "peace and justice" that involves creative nonviolence, education, medical help, etc. Working for peace and justice is integral to Mennonite theology and praxis. This may not have anything to do with your vision for your book but I'm mentioning it in case you do a side quest in your research.
Blessings on your research, interviewing, writing, and editing!
June, thanks so much for your insightful comments! Dorothy Day is a hero of mine, and I am fascinated to learn more about the Mennonite movements you mentioned. I will certainly embark on those side quests! Thank you!
Oh! Oh! I had to jump right down to the comments section to say I love the idea of your next book, and while I don't know what kind of protests you plan on covering, the women's protests of the Revolutionary War era are so little appreciated and so interesting! I'm an independent public historian,* and also a progressive reenactor (which means extremely high standards for accuracy). We've begun digging into these small but mighty forms of protest and the women who led them, and sometimes turning them into living history presentations. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich doesn't write specifically on protest, but her books (like Good Wives) are so readable and the best resource for understanding why the mundane aspects of women's lives are powerful, powerful history, and why we don't need to look for women who seemed to hold unusually modern ideals to find kinship.
If you're at all interested I can point you to more specific protests, or I'm sure you can find them yourself, but public spinning bees (women didn't really know how to spin anymore, so they were hilariously bad at it at times) to declare economic freedom were one popular way to express support for the Patriot cause. And don't count out the Loyalist women- they were quieter but no less important. And finally, for fun, my favorite example of female protest is the Boston Coffee Riot!
*published a paper in Early American History about a native woman who left a first-hand account of her conversion while in jail in York, ME, and worked at a museum doing the kids' public history programs. Also just a nerd who loves women's history.
Oooh! I love hearing about this passion of yours! I am still trying to narrow on which stories to cover, so this is helpful. One theme that has emerged as I've been writing is just how AMERICAN it is to protest. It's one of the essential pieces of our DNA. And the stories of WOMEN protesting has often been hidden, dismissed, and undervalued. So, no surprise, I've decided it's my job to change that. (LOL, always the overachiever.) Sounds like you have that same journalistic instinct! Keep on with that good work!
Congratulations on the next book! I look forward to reading it.
I have a few names to suggest for consideration or further information:
1) Dorothy Day, the founder of The Catholic Worker movement was deeply involved in protests during her life. She understood protests as part of an expression of her faith and participated in protests until she was no longer physically able to protest. In many ways, The Catholic Worker movement is a daily-lived protest against capitalism, war, and American injustices.
2) Mennonite Action, mennoniteaction.org is a recent movement protesting the war in Gaza. And while there has been a peace-settlement between Israel and Gaza there remains much to do for Palestinians to recover. Joanna Lawrence Shenk is one of the organizers of Mennonite Action and would be a helpful woman to interview.
3) Mennonites have a different view of "peace and justice" that involves creative nonviolence, education, medical help, etc. Working for peace and justice is integral to Mennonite theology and praxis. This may not have anything to do with your vision for your book but I'm mentioning it in case you do a side quest in your research.
Blessings on your research, interviewing, writing, and editing!
June Mears Driedger
June, thanks so much for your insightful comments! Dorothy Day is a hero of mine, and I am fascinated to learn more about the Mennonite movements you mentioned. I will certainly embark on those side quests! Thank you!
Liz, YAY!!!!! for this next book!!! It sounds incredible!!!
Thanks, friend!!!
Oh! Oh! I had to jump right down to the comments section to say I love the idea of your next book, and while I don't know what kind of protests you plan on covering, the women's protests of the Revolutionary War era are so little appreciated and so interesting! I'm an independent public historian,* and also a progressive reenactor (which means extremely high standards for accuracy). We've begun digging into these small but mighty forms of protest and the women who led them, and sometimes turning them into living history presentations. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich doesn't write specifically on protest, but her books (like Good Wives) are so readable and the best resource for understanding why the mundane aspects of women's lives are powerful, powerful history, and why we don't need to look for women who seemed to hold unusually modern ideals to find kinship.
If you're at all interested I can point you to more specific protests, or I'm sure you can find them yourself, but public spinning bees (women didn't really know how to spin anymore, so they were hilariously bad at it at times) to declare economic freedom were one popular way to express support for the Patriot cause. And don't count out the Loyalist women- they were quieter but no less important. And finally, for fun, my favorite example of female protest is the Boston Coffee Riot!
*published a paper in Early American History about a native woman who left a first-hand account of her conversion while in jail in York, ME, and worked at a museum doing the kids' public history programs. Also just a nerd who loves women's history.
Oooh! I love hearing about this passion of yours! I am still trying to narrow on which stories to cover, so this is helpful. One theme that has emerged as I've been writing is just how AMERICAN it is to protest. It's one of the essential pieces of our DNA. And the stories of WOMEN protesting has often been hidden, dismissed, and undervalued. So, no surprise, I've decided it's my job to change that. (LOL, always the overachiever.) Sounds like you have that same journalistic instinct! Keep on with that good work!
You too! I'll look forward to reading your book. :)