Book Round Up
Jay Beaman, Pentecostal Pacifism: The Origin, Development, and Rejection of Pacific Belief among the Pentecostals, Center for Mennonite and Brethren Studies, (1989).
For a long time this book was the only text devoted solely to the subject of pacifism in pentecostalism's birth and early history - a belief that would with time thoroughly diminish as the predominant view becoming instead a minority opinion. This uniqueness, coupled with the fact that the book as been out of print for a long time (it took me about 3 years to get hold of a copy) and has a foreword by John Howard Yoder mean expectations were high. To say that expectations were not met is an understatement, I struggle to think of a time I have been more disappointed with a book.
As a text to demonstrate that many pentecostals were pacifists it does its job, not particularly well but still it's something. The book is almost entirely bereft of any real critical analysis - which given the fact that this book post-dates Anderson's Vision of the Disinherited (UK Link)
by over 10 years is scandalous. Fortunately, the signs are (I have only skim read sections) that the publication Alexander's Peace to War
(UK Link)
earlier this year means that there is now a half decent monograph on pentecostal pacifism (although not on pacifism alone I still think Anderson takes some beating, however).
Mary Kenny, Germany Calling: A Personal Biography of William Joyce / Lord Haw Haw, New Island, (2003).
In Germany Calling Kenny has produced an accessible and honest account of Joyce's career. Joyce, who is better known by his radio pseudonym Lord Haw Haw, was the last person to be executed for treason in the UK - even though the legalities of such having been born in the US were hotly contested. The nature of Joyce's treason was his pro-German transmissions for the Nazi propaganda effort to Britain - transmissions that would prove to be very successful
Although it is as Lord Haw Haw that Joyce would become infamous as a British traitor Joyce's defection to the German Nazi's, where he was courted by Goebbels, was out of character. Having been raised in Ireland Joyce was a firm supported of the Irish loyalists to the British crown and would eventually be driven out of Ireland by the IRA following his sharing of intelligence with British forces. Once in the UK Joyce meandered around educational establishments never really devoting himself to his studies while also getting involved in far right politics. Joyce was soon gathering attention as a dynamic and charismatic speaker and was soon a leading light in Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists but after being tipped off that the British authorities were about to detain him under Defense Regulation 18B he emigrated to the US.
Kenny has produced a good biography. I do question whether the real force of Joyce's anti-semitism has really been accounted for, either morally or biographically, as when it comes down to it although Kenny has succeeded in humanising Joyce and showing his strengths I think Kenny has also produced a sympathetic account of a kindred Irish loyalist. It is however an interesting and well-written book.
Related post: Mosley's Fascism and elsewhere the author's summary of the book.
Recent Comments