1960s protest movements
1961
1963 Nuclear Weapons Test Ban Treaty
A01=Jon Coburn
Alice Herz
American peace movement history
American political landscape
American war in Vietnam
Anci Koppel
Anne Eaton
anti-nuclear protest
anti-war women
antiwar efforts
arms control advocacy
atomic weapons protest
Author_Jon Coburn
Bella Abzug
Category=GTU
Category=JBSF1
Category=JP
Category=JPW
Category=NHTB
Category=NHTW
civil rights era women
cold war activism
cold war culture
Cora Weiss
Coretta Scott King
Dagmar Wilson
disarmament movements
domestic sphere
Elise Boulding
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
feminism
feminist historiography
Frances Herring
Georgetown activism
grassroots women's organizing
House Un-American Activities Committee
HUAC opposition
Jane Addams
Jon Coburn historian
Lorraine Gordon
Mary Clarke
maternal politics
maternalism
McCarthyism resistance
mid-century political women
middle-class women politics
militant
moral authority of motherhood
moralism
mothers
National Women's Conference 1977
New York Radical Women
November 1
nuclear disarmament history
organizational archives research
pacifist organizations
peace movement oral history
Popular Front
progressive activism
progressive women United States
radical
radical women activists
respectability politics
Ruth Gage Colby
second wave feminism origins
self-immolation protest history
Shirley Lens
test ban treaty advocacy
University of Massachusetts Pre
Valerie Delacroix
Vietnam era protest
Vietnam War
Vietnamese American dialogue
women's liberation history
women's peace organizations
women's political caucus history
women's political history
women's suffrage legacy
WSP
Product details
- ISBN 9781625348876
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 31 Oct 2025
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Illuminating a powerful yet underappreciated force in the American peace and women's movements
On November 1, 1961, thousands of middle-class white women took to the streets throughout the United States to demonstrate against atomic weapons. They were brought together by the group Women Strike for Peace (WSP), which grew from modest beginnings at a Georgetown cocktail party to become one of the most effective peace organizations in American history. Under the stewardship of children's book illustrator Dagmar Wilson, and with indispensable support from figures such as Bella Abzug, a lawyer who would later help found the National Women's Political Caucus and serve as US Representative for New York, WSP branches spread to cities and towns across the country, and the group influenced major arms-control treaties and successful antiwar efforts of the Cold War period. Single-handedly, WSP dismantled the McCarthyite House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), catalysed public support for the 1963 Nuclear Weapons Test Ban Treaty, and brokered unprecedented exchanges between American and Vietnamese women during the American War in Vietnam. WSP accomplished their political wins , in part, through a public image that stressed the inherent moral authority and sanctity of motherhood.
In Not Just a Housewife, Jon Coburn explores the fascinating story of WSP to argue that the group's historic significance was much more complex than the maternal activism for which it is often remembered. He traces activists' evolution through the Cold War's cultural upheavals, uncovering the significance of forgotten episodes, such as the extraordinary self-immolation of 82-year-old Detroit activist Alice Herz and WSP's unheralded contributions to the 1977 National Women's Conference. In so doing, Coburn recovers WSP's revolutionary politics and militant protests and contends that the organization fused this radical activism with the seeming respectability of motherhood. Through unprecedented access to organizational archives and oral histories, Not Just a Housewife details how WSP's unique fusion of radicalism and respectability significantly shaped Cold War-era women's peace movement history, as well as the broader American culture.
On November 1, 1961, thousands of middle-class white women took to the streets throughout the United States to demonstrate against atomic weapons. They were brought together by the group Women Strike for Peace (WSP), which grew from modest beginnings at a Georgetown cocktail party to become one of the most effective peace organizations in American history. Under the stewardship of children's book illustrator Dagmar Wilson, and with indispensable support from figures such as Bella Abzug, a lawyer who would later help found the National Women's Political Caucus and serve as US Representative for New York, WSP branches spread to cities and towns across the country, and the group influenced major arms-control treaties and successful antiwar efforts of the Cold War period. Single-handedly, WSP dismantled the McCarthyite House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), catalysed public support for the 1963 Nuclear Weapons Test Ban Treaty, and brokered unprecedented exchanges between American and Vietnamese women during the American War in Vietnam. WSP accomplished their political wins , in part, through a public image that stressed the inherent moral authority and sanctity of motherhood.
In Not Just a Housewife, Jon Coburn explores the fascinating story of WSP to argue that the group's historic significance was much more complex than the maternal activism for which it is often remembered. He traces activists' evolution through the Cold War's cultural upheavals, uncovering the significance of forgotten episodes, such as the extraordinary self-immolation of 82-year-old Detroit activist Alice Herz and WSP's unheralded contributions to the 1977 National Women's Conference. In so doing, Coburn recovers WSP's revolutionary politics and militant protests and contends that the organization fused this radical activism with the seeming respectability of motherhood. Through unprecedented access to organizational archives and oral histories, Not Just a Housewife details how WSP's unique fusion of radicalism and respectability significantly shaped Cold War-era women's peace movement history, as well as the broader American culture.
Jon Coburn is a senior lecturer in American history at the University of Lincoln. His work has appeared in Journal of Women's History, Peace and Change, and The History Teacher, among others.
