Sociologist shares his book with congressional leaders

During a weekend of anti-war protests in Washington, D.C., Tufts sociologist Paul Joseph got a congressional audience for his new book, Are Americans Becoming More Peaceful? (Paradigm Press, 2006).

Paul Joseph © JOANIE TOBIN

He and a dozen other authors of books about the war were invited to an Iraq Book Fair, organized by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who chairs the Out of Iraq congressional caucus. The authors appeared on Capitol Hill on January 29 during Lobby Day, in which anti-war activists lobbied their congressional leaders to end the war. On January 27, tens of thousands of protestors from across the country, led by activists from the Vietnam War, held a series of rallies and staged a march on the Capitol to pressure the new Congress to extricate the United States from Iraq.

At the book fair, Joseph and the other authors each were given five minutes to discuss their books and why they chose to write them. Members of Congress and the public then asked the authors questions about their work.

Other participating writers included Aaron Glantz, author of How America Lost Iraq; M.M. Chantiloupe, author of Iraq: The War That Shouldn’t Be: You Decide; David J. Danelo, author of Blood Stripes: The Grunt’s View of the War in Iraq; John Prados, author of Hoodwinked: The Documents that Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War; Kirsten Holmstedt, who wrote Band of Sisters: American Women at War in Iraq; and Tyler Drumheller, author of On the Brink, An Insider’s Account of How the White House Compromised American Intelligence.