Plowing My Own Furrow - (Syracuse Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution) by Howard W Moore (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Moore still recalls the price he paid for his convictions. Here are lessons on toleration, conviction, and this nation's ability--or inability in Moore's case--to accept people whose views differ from those of the majority.-- "Choice"

Moore's narrative is quietly matter-of-fact: he refuses to paint himself as a martyr, and he straightforwardly rejects most of his country's economic and political system without launching into any tirades. Only the beauty of harvest time stirs his eloquence. A stalwart, sometimes moving witness.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Moore's remarkable memoir illustrates the harsh treatment meted out to conscientious objectors during World War I. He and others who opposed the war were court-martialed, sentenced to 25 years in prison, put in solitary confinement, manacled in their bedbug- and rat-infested cells, and held in prison until long after the war was over. While the focus of the work is on Moore's treatment as a conscientious objector, it also details the events of his upbringing in rural upstate New York and the impact on his thinking of socialist leaders like Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas. Recommended.-- "Library journal"

Moore's resistance to the war is the central focus of this book, but it would not have the power and the eloquence that it does if Moore did not tell us something of his life before and after. . . . But the real lesson in integrity here, of course, is that non-violence does not stop at opposing world wars.-- "San Francisco Chronicle"

About the Author

Howard Moore was born in 1889 in Sing Sing (later Ossining), New York. He only finished the eighth grade, then went to Manhattan to work for the telephone company at the age of fourteen. Moore was self-educated, an agnostic, and had never been a member of any political party. He had been America's oldest living conscientious objector to World War I and wrote this book at the age of ninety-five.