Dangerous Grounds Antiwar coffeehouses and military dissent in the vietnam era

This crisply written and inspirational book provides valuable documentation about the people and organizations responsible for the so-called GI coffeehouse movement of the Vietnam War era. The coffeehouses formed near military posts throughout the country to provide space for soldiers to meet with civilian opponents of the war to plan resistance activities and facilitate GI access to legal and social services. Readers see how the broader themes of the times, like racial tensions and the drug culture, played out within the coffeehouses, and get the lesser-known story of the military's attempt to first repress the movement, and then to try to coopt it by forming its own coffeehouses. The origins of the anti-Bob Hope variety show FTA--"Free the Army"--within the same sociopolitical milieu as the coffeehouses is especially revealing. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Jerry Lembcke, College of the Holy Cross