Catch Disarmed And Dangerous: The Radical Lives And Times Of Daniel And Philip Berrigan Created By Murray Polner Visible In Textbook

really enjoyed this lively and readable biography of Dan and Phil Berrigan, The authors provide an overview of the Berrigan brothers' lives from childhood until late middle age with an emphasis, of course, on thes ands when the brothers were most famous for their resistance efforts against the Vietnam War.
The authors carefully trace the path that leads the brothers to radical activism, including major acts of civil disobedience, Their path was not easy or simple, and they suffered for their actions as did many other activists in the Catholic Left, Moreover, there were always moral complexities, Is destroying draft files nonviolent Is breaking into buildings nonviolent Is it acceptable to prevent office staff from calling the cops Or to physically hold a staff member Indeed, there are several moments in each of the brothers' lives when they crossed a moral line, which the authors do not sugarcoat or try to defend.
What matters most, as the book makes clear, is that both brothers stood up for a moral cause when the nation sorely needed people to stand up, I wish the book went into greater depth about the relationship between the women's movement and the antiwar and antiarmaments movements, although it is clear neither brother, despite good intentions, understood the implications of feminism.
Also, in the chapter about Daniel Berrigan's speech about Israel and Palestine, the book makes little effort to historicize and contextualize the Palestinians' plight in regard to Israel, To their credit, though, the authors defend Berrigan against charges of antiSemitism and defend the idea that people have a right to criticize Israel, Altogether, I found this book to be delightful, It provided me with valuable insights into thes antiwar movement that I was lacking before,.stars. Cant remember how this ended up in my toreads but Im glad I finally picked it up, Was less interested in the religious training and aspects of the brothers lives, and fascinated by their antiwar activism and commitment to nonviolent social justice, Of course, the fact that they were priests does add a layer of intrigue to their history, especially when the authors compare them to Dorothy Day, Gandhi, and even Joan of Arc.


Book dragged a bit and could have used a little finessing in the writing, Nonetheless a decent history of Dan and Phil Berrigan, I appreciate that it helped to deepen my understanding of a sector of American resistance to the Vietnam War, Excellent look at the lives of the Berrigan brothers that, of necessity, leaves as many questions unanswered as answered, I could never do what they did and am not convinced much of it was effective, At the same time I commend them for following their consciences and being true to their values, Perhaps a man can

do no more, "Disarmed and Dangerous" was fascinating, though a bit uneven, Considerable pages were devoted to tracing the ancestry of the brothers going back several generations, But that did not shed much light on the evolution of the Berrigan Brothers' unorthodox view of what they came to believe SHOULD be the role of the church fostering social justice and resisting war and the "war machine".
The influence of their father and mother, the former on their tenacity some would say rigidity the latter on their character and empathy was well told, The bulk of the book insightfully portrayed both the intensity of the times Vietnam and civil rights struggles the complex nature of each brother and how they reacted to the maelstrom they were both immersed in and which they, indeed, helped to create.
From confronting the immorality of the Vietnam war, the brothers moved on to the "bigger picture", the insanity of the nuclear arms race and how it was still is inextricably linked to continuing unequal social justice.
As wellwritten, insightful and absorbing this account was, the later antinuclear activities of the brothers was not as wellchronicled nor explored,

Nonetheless, After reading the book, one comes much closer to understanding these remarkable men and to admire them, despite their flaws notably, unreasonable expectations that others would demonstrate the same level of commitment that they manifested.
That commitment included imprisonment, and much hardship, both physical and emotional,

The "picture" that emerges of the Berrigans is complex, yet it is compellingly clear that the brothers' example, will, intellect and leadership and powerfully shaped the dialogue and dynamics of the antiwar movement in a unique way.
They had no equals in their time,

I once heard Phillip Berrigan speak, only a few feet away from me, prior to a large group of us all being arrested in Groton, CT, for protesting the Trident submarine, a black, foreboding nightmare, designed to rain down nuclear warheads on our "enemies", Sadly, the submarine launched ballistic missile submarines still roam the seas and the militaryindustrial complex and armaments still as President Eisenhower said before leaving office still constitutes "humanity hung on a cross of iron".


And though the world seems, now, not to notice, the evil and insanity of the arms race will always be indelibly seared into the recesses of moral consciousness.
And this is in no small way because of Daniel and Phillip Berrigan, I highly recommend "Disarmed and Dangerous"! Though younger folks don't remember the name of these radical priests, the Berrigan brothers, they were at the center of news and dissent in thes ands.
Despite their great courage in attempting to lead cruciform lives, this book doesn't romanticize them, The question that looms throughout is whether their was truly fruitful, The book seems to give a mildly negative answer, but the evidence in earlier pages pulls another direction, This book makes important reading for the new wave of faith, For all their failings, the Berrigan brothers can't help but inspire, I've yet to hear of a conservative presbyterian minister hunted by the FBI, The Berrigans had to be doing something right, i really liked this book, an overview of the lives of the berrigan brothers, gave me much to think about, Interesting subject matter but the book was just okay, I don't know why this book moved me so deeply, I guess because I remembered the Berrigans from when I was in high school and now, all these years later, to read about them and discover that they went on fighting and protesting for the rest of their lives.
I gave the bookbecause the author does go off track and wander around a bit then suddenly introduces new information that seemingly comes out of nowhere, But the story of these two men, both Catholic priests, one a quiet, rather mysterious poet and ascetic, the other a powerful, intense, righteous crusader for good was inspiring, There are those who consider Philip a saint for his activism, After reading this I agree, The subjects: fascinating. The book: not great. The two authors did not collaborate enough, and the book was poorly edited, The authors were constantly swapping tenses, sometimes even within the clauses of a single sentence, I recognize that the Berrigan brothers were still alive at the time of writing, but that does not excuse the constant shifting,

Additionally, they jumped around in time unnecessarily, lingered too long on unimportant details, and rushed through or skipped over important ones, There was a whole chapter on the Berrigan ancestral history, but Daniel Berrigan's work ministering to AIDS patients got a single paragraph, Uneven, at times frustrating, and not a book that does a good job at taking the longer view, Heard about this one on NPR today, Looking forward to getting hold of a copy, A fascinating portrait of two men whose lives seem to have been forgotten by most Americans, with our fake news, short attention spans, and "crisis of the day" mentality, The author clearly admires the Berrigans but gives time to opposing viewpoints and acknowledges that the Berrigan brothers were sometimes troubled by doubt and selfrighteousness, Still, the dedication Daniel and Philip Berrigan demonstrated to the subject of global peace is worth remembering and being inspired by, One passage, in particular, stood out for me speaking of Phil Berrigan's opposition to the Vietnam War, the author writes, "His anger about the killing affected his every waking moment.
" It is that tireless dedication that impressed me the most about the Berrigans, Despite harsh criticism, harassment from authorities, and much harsher sentences than were typical for their acts of protest, the Berrigans never wavered in their commitment to peace, And even, late in life, when they acknowledged they would probably not be able to change the world, they remained committed to doing what was right simply because it was right.
We live in a world obsessed with goals, returns, and rewards, Maybe if we all focused more on doing good just because it is good, we might actually achieve peace in our time, What transformed Daniel and Philip Berrigan from conventional Roman Catholic priests into "holy outlaws," for a time the two most wanted men of J, Edgar Hoover's FBI And how did they evolve from their traditionally pious, secondgeneration immigrant beginnings to become the most famous some would say notorious religious rebels of their dayDisarmed and Dangerous, the first fulllength unauthorized biography of the Berrigans, answers these questions with an incisive and illuminating account of their rise to prominence as civil rights and antiwar activists.
It also traces the brothers' careers as constant thorns in the side of church authority as well as their leadership of the ongoing Plowshares movementa highly controversial campaign of civil disobedience against the contemporary arms trade and nuclear weapons.
Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady plumb the Berrigans' contradictions: among them, Philip's secret marriage, while he was still a Josephite priest, to Elizabeth McAlister, then a Catholic nun, which led to their dismissals by their respective religious orders and Philip's excommunication from the church and Daniel's speech faulting Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and the resulting criticism loosed upon him from proIsraeli Americans and many of his allies on the left.
Disarmed and Dangerous is a fascinating study of brothers linked by faith and the dreams of peace and social justice in a century bloodied by war, mass murders, and weapons of immense destructive power.
It is, above all, an original contribution to modern American history that is sure to be widely read and discussed, .