PUBLICATION: First book by UoL modern historian Jon Coburn

The first book by University of Lincoln modern historian, Dr Jon Coburn (Senior Lecturer in American History) will be released on Friday 31 October.

Published by University of Massachusetts Press, ‘Not Just a Housewife: Women Strike for Peace and the Cold War Women’s Movement’, illuminates the powerful yet unappreciated story of American women’s peace and antinuclear group Women Strike for Peace. The book recovers WSP’s revolutionary politics and militant protests to show how the organisation uniquely fused radical activism with the seemingly respectable image of traditional motherhood, to unprecedented success. Through unprecedented access to organisational archives and oral histories, Not Just a Housewife details how WSP’s fusion of radicalism and respectability significantly shaped peace and disarmament efforts, the Cold War-era women’s movement, and American political culture more broadly.

To celebrate the release of Jon’s first book, Modern and Contemporary History at Lincoln invites everyone to a launch event on Wednesday 3 December, 4pm-6pm, Jackson Lecture Theatre (MB0603, Minerva Building, Brayford Campus). The event is open to all without booking – refreshments provided, and there will be a chance to win copies of the book.

Jon will tell the remarkable story of WSP, before discussing histories of protest and politics in America with other researchers from Lincoln’s Modern History programme and students from the Lincoln School of Humanities and Heritage.

Not Just a Housewife is available directly through the University of Massachusetts Press website or from Waterstones, Amazon, and anywhere else you like to purchase books.

Praise for Not Just a Housewife:
“Not Just a Housewife offers a valuable contribution to the literature on peace activism by bringing together and making use of substantial and diverse archival materials. It forwards conversations about Women Strike for Peace as it illustrates the organization’s significance to 1960s social movements.” – Jessica M. Frazier, author of Women’s Antiwar Diplomacy during the Viet Nam War Era

“In this first major revisionist treatment of Women Strike for Peace, Jon Coburn effectively places the group as one of the most significant peace organizations in US history, an acknowledgement that is long overdue.” – Leandra Zarnow, author of Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug

Story submitted by Jon Coburn
jcoburn@lincoln.ac.uk