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Reviews
DOWN IN MY HEART: PEACE WITNESS IN WAR TIME
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by William Stafford
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| Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2006. Photographs. 126 pages. $15.95 paper. |
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| In 1942, a young William Stafford joined approximately 12,000 other federally recognized conscientious objectors at Civilian Public Service (CPS) camps across the nation where, instead of being drafted into the military, they participated in alternative service for the duration of World War II. Down in My Heart: Peace Witness in War Time is Stafford's poetical prose account of his experiences first at a CPS camp near Magnolia, Arkansas, and then at two camps in California. This short memoir asks significant questions about how citizen pacifists should respond to war and to smaller interpersonal conflicts, the place of pacifism and resistance in democratic societies, and the importance of purposeful, peaceful living. |
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Initially offered as his master's thesis at the University of Kansas in 1946 and first published in 1947, Stafford describes this work as "a series of incidents, purposefully planned to give texture to our lives" (p. 10). It is not a history or a strictly chronological account but rather a presentation of several short accounts that describe the tensions inherent in mid-century pacifism. The book begins and ends with the figure of George, a pacifist who struggles with the course of his resistance and eventually protests conscription by leaving CPS for prison. While the war presented a solidarity of purpose for those who fought abroad or on the homefront, George embodies the "broken fellowships" and "alienations" that many pacifists faced when they insisted on putting their values into action (p. 8). |
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Alienation is the overriding focus of two of the ten chapters, "The Mob Scene at McNeil" — "it takes an intricate succession of misfortunes and blunders to get mobbed by your own countrymen," writes Stafford — and "The End of the War" (p. 15). But much of the book presents the camps as places where men created communities in opposition to the violence unfolding in the world. One chapter describes "A CO Wedding" while another depicts family life at the camps and a third addresses mysticism and spiritual growth. One of the most moving chapters, "The Battle of Anapamu Creek," follows several COs as they confront a disapproving Forest Service supervisor and convince him to change his behavior through a constructive and humanistic process. Threads of division and personal struggle are never far in the background, however, as the young men of CPS search for the means to "make [their] protest clean" (p. 90). |
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It is not clear by the end of the book how George will emerge from World War II and his stint in prison. Not a fully fleshed-out character, George is a device to guide readers through the harshness and ambiguity of CPS. Stafford, on the other hand, comes out of his experiences at CPS anything but disillusioned. His work as a poet, teacher, and Oregon's poet laureate was infused with his early belief in pacifism and the lessons he learned at the camps. In his powerful introduction to the Oregon State University Press reprint edition, Stafford's son Kim Stafford writes, "I think for the rest of his life he missed that intensity of purpose he had felt in camp" (p. xiii). |
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Kim Stafford's introduction, written decades after the original text, provides some of the historical context not addressed in the memoir and ties his father's observations to contemporary conflicts. He advises readers that the text provides a means to "learn peace — not as an abstraction, but as a skill" (p. vii). Together the two poets provide us with a compelling history and first-person narrative of the pacifist legacy of World War II, a legacy that is often overshadowed by the fighting of the war. This book is a meaningful and important contribution to the history of Oregon (home to several CPS camps) and one of its finest residents, as well as to its artistic heritage. |
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| Katrine Barber
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| Portland State University |
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