Book Description
Wendell Berry and David James Duncan present a haunting call to the collective conscience of the citizenry, and an urgent challenge to the meaning and workings of a true democracy. Their patriotic dissents expand the context for questions of terror and security, and present an enlightened understanding of the threats to -- and responsibilities of -- freedom.


From the Publisher
Winner of the 2004 American Library Association's Eli M. Oboler Award for Intellectual Freedom.


About the Author
Wendell Berry is an essayist, poet, and farmer, author of more than thirty books including, In the Presence of Fear: Three Essays for a Changed World. He is a long-time member of The Orion Society’s advisory board and the past recipient of the T.S. Eliot award, the John Hay award, the Lyndhurst Prize, and the Aiken-Taylor Award for Poetry from The Sewanee Review. He lives and works on his farm in Kentucky. David James Duncan is the author of the novels The River Why and The Brothers K, and a collection of memoir and stories, River Teeth. His most recent book, My Story as Told by Water, won the Western States Book Award and was nominated for the 2001 National Book Award.


Excerpted from Citizens Dissent: Sceurity, Morality, and Leadership in an Age of Terror (New Patriotism Series, 3) by Wendell Berry, David James Duncan. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
We can no longer afford to confuse peaceability with passivity. Authentic peace is no more passive than war. Like war, it calls for discipline and intelligence and strength of character, though it calls also for higher principles and aims. If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we have ever prepared for war. –"A Citizen's Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America" by Wendell Berry There is no man or woman, no nation, no mortal power on earth capable of "ridding the world of evil" as George W. Bush has vowed to do. The desire is preposterous. To act upon preposterousness with vast military might is evil. To acquiesce in such evil is somnolence. –"When Compassion Becomes Dissent" by David James Duncan

FROM THE PUBLISHER