Interviewed in Catonsville Patch for Catonsville Nine

Penny Riordan recently interviewed me about my book The Catonsville Nine for Catonsville Patch, the online news site. (Please note the shout-outs to my mom and sister.) The story is available here.

The Catonsville Nine reviewed in The Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal

My book The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era was reviewed last week in both The Boston Globe and The Wall Street Journal. The Globe's review called the book "a comprehensive account" and a "readable history." (The full review is available here.) The Wall Street Journal described the book as "sympathetic but fair." (That review can be found here.)

John Dear on Catonsville Nine in National Catholic Reporter

Father John Dear has written a wonderfully generous review of my book The Catonsville Nine for the National Catholic Reporter. The full review can be found here, but one passage is worth quoting: "Meticulously researched, it reads like a thriller with a compelling message about the power of ordinary people to make a difference in changing the world."

The Catonsville Nine in Publisher's Weekly

A review in Publisher's Weekly for my book The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era. It says that I'm successful at "combining a novel’s readability with in-depth historical research." Read the full PW review here.

Endorsements for The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era

"In 1967, the respected Vietnam historian Bernard Fall warned that Vietnam 'is threatened with extinction [under] the blows of the largest military machine ever unleashed on an area of this size.' This remarkable study brings to life the courageous activists who sought to prevent this horrifying outcome with a principled act of civil disobedience, exploring the complex circumstances and consequences with rare sensitivity and insight." --Noam Chomsky

"Peters offers a rich and engrossing study of nine passionate activists who displayed their disgust with the war in Vietnam by destroying draft registration files in the Baltimore area. The book vividly depicts the lives of these men and women; who they were, what they did, why they did it, and the notable trial that followed their arrest. The Catonsville Nine is a valuable contribution to social and legal history; and an absorbing study, too, of the psychology, politics, and theology of protest and non-violence." --Lawrence Friedman, Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

"The definitive account of 'arguably the single most powerful antiwar act in American history.' Well researched and well told, it reads like a thriller, with all the pain, drama, and power of the 1960s anti-war movement--but it's far more important than any thriller. Peters deftly takes us through the epic tale and trial of ordinary activists determined to do what they could to help end the U.S. war in Viet Nam, how they broke new ground in symbolic nonviolent civil disobedience, and sparked a movement that indeed helped end the war. Like Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters, The Catonsville Nine makes movement history come alive and pushes us to carry on their mission for the abolition of war once and for all." -- John Dear, activist and author of Living Peace, Jesus the Rebel

Publication date for The Catonsville Nine set for June 29, 2012

Oxford University Press will be publishing my book The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era on June 29, 2012. It's already available via pre-order through Amazon.com and Oxford UP.

Wisconsin State Journal interview about teaching "The Wire" at UW-Madison

I was lucky enough to be interviewed by the Wisconsin State Journal's Deb Ziff for the paper's "Know Your Madisonian" feature. We mainly talked about using The Wire in my course in the Integrated Liberal Studies (ILS) Program at UW-Madison, "Narratives of Justice and Equality in Multicultural America." The interview is available here.

Forthcoming book on The Catonsville Nine: CLR at St. John's blog

The blog of the Center for Law and Religion at St. John's University School of Law has written up a nice preview of my forthcoming book on The Catonsville Nine (to be published by Oxford University Press in the spring of 2012). You can find the posting here.

Interview about teaching "The Wire" at UW-Madison

Here's a link to an interview I did with John Lucas of UW-Madison's News Service about my Integrated Liberal Studies course, "Narratives of Justice and Equality in Multicultural America."

Teaching "The Wire" at UW-Madison: Week Five

We're kind of settling into the semester now -- for better and for worse -- in my Integrated Liberal Studies (ILS) 275 course at UW-Madison, "Narratives of Justice and Equality in Multicultural America."

The good news: students clearly are engaged in viewing The Wire. The syllabus indicates that we're up to Episode Five, but several students have told me that they have shot forward and viewed the entire first season. I've also discussed with several the wisdom of buying the entire five-season series. (A great idea, in my book.)

The challenge involves getting them to do more than just marvel over how real and engaging the show is. We're reading Jason DeParle's great book American Dream, and I'm hoping for them to see the links between public policy, poverty, and crime. I've also assigned the game "Spent," which puts players in the position of trying to survive a month in poverty.

And then there are group projects: a class presentation and a research project. That's where the rubber will meet the road: they'll have to be creative and critical with less direct guidance from me. The opportunities for learning are much greater in that context, but so are the perils -- students can flake out, not meet expectations, etc.