A review by analenegrace
Burglar for Peace: Lessons Learned in the Catholic Left's Resistance to the Vietnam War by Frida Berrigan, Ted Glick

challenging emotional hopeful informative fast-paced

5.0

going into this book, i was very familiar with the time and 1960s and 1970s revolution which i think i would recommend to anyone also interested in this book. I went to a jesuit university in new orleans and my research focuses on young 1960s/70s radicals, their successes and their great failures, again i think very important knowledge in reading this book. 
three quotes in particular stood out to me although i annotated this book quite heavily:

  1. “the only type of true revolution which will come in this society will be as a result of a change from the bottom of society, not from the top” this is a message that often gets lost in revolutionary movements headed by whites people as they consider white and educated as those who should lead when at the end of the day, those oppressed are the ones who must lead movements if they are meant to be successful. this is a lesson glick clearly leans as evident in his later sentiments. 
  2. “I agreed with the WU about the need to take stronger action to try to end the war. I agreed with that sense of urgency. But i joined the Catholic Left because they combined action commensurate to the urgency with a commitment to non-violence and the building of a beloved community.” My research focused greatly on SDS and WU so this was a particularly poignant section to me. many of the WU came “above ground” and simply went on to live normal lives as upper middle class white americans, something members of the catholic left have not done. in all of their own ways, those mentioned throughout this book continued working past the 70s, especially glick in the climate movement. perhaps the violence exhausted the WU or perhaps their enthusiasm was only for the anger and violence, but whatever it is, the Catholic Left took the sentiment and gave it some longevity as well as success. 
  3. “we should be about our development where we are, building connections locally and regionally with others, growing in a variety of personal and political ways, and becoming a truly revolutionary people- honest, loving, strong and committed to a constant struggle to know and act upon the truth” with this sentiment, glick really presents what the catholic left was meant to do and what genuine revolutionary sentiment should be. Many young organizer get stuck on the big picture but through small and local organizing, which glick emphasizes in this section and throughout, change and success can actually happen. It reminds me of how important organizing for your local community is because when your local community comes together, genuine change can be seen and small scales grow. 

While i myself to not think all organizing has to be nonviolent to be successful, i found myself agreeing with glick quite strongly and felt his genuineness throughout while also citing well and giving me much material to further dive into in 2023. 

While i do think you need to have a background in some sort of revolutionary understanding to fully “get” this book, i think it’s a great read for anyone trying to understand the Catholic and general religious leftist movement. his use of biblical text is poignant and leave me, an ex-evangelical, very interested in reading more from others in this movement, including Phil and Dan Berrigan. Two moments that stood out most were the discussion of the parable of the good samaritan and the greater criticism of the passerby than the initial perpetrator. The other was the story of Jesus Christ where he flipped the tables on the in temple, emphasizing that is what needs to be done to the U.S. These moments show us the good religion can do, especially in a time when American evangelism is doing so much harm. 

Glick’s writing style is easy to understand but can often leave one questioning if an interaction went as smoothly as he said it did, as often he’ll mention people who understood or agreed and i felt a little ambiguous on those sections, but otherwise an important and timely piece good for those interested in non violent organizing! 
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