David Thoreau Wieck (1921–1997) was an American activist and philosophy professor.

Career

David Thoreau Wieck was born on December 13, 1921. His father, Edward A. Wieck, worked for the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...

and wrote about miners' associations. David later wrote a biography of his mother,

Agnes Burns Wieck Agnes Burns Wieck (January 4, 1892 – October 22, 1966) was an American labor activist and journalist, described as "a Coal Field 'Hell Raiser'". Early life Agnes Burns was born in Sandoval, Illinois Sandoval is a village in Marion County ...

. Wieck began publishing anarchist and antiwar articles in 1938 and was a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He published ''A Field of Broken Stones'' with another conscientious objector, Lowell Naeve, about their time in prison. After the war, Wieck edited ''

Resistance Resistance may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm: ** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title ** ''T ...

'' with Paul Goodman. Weick also edited the anarcho-pacifist journal ''Liberation''. He was a lifelong friend of fellow pacifist activist

David Dellinger David T. Dellinger (August 22, 1915 – May 25, 2004) was an American pacifist and an activist for nonviolent social change. He achieved peak prominence as one of the Chicago Seven, who were put on trial in 1969. Early life and schooling Dellin ...

. Both were imprisoned in the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, as conscientious objectors and protested its racial segregrationist policies. He became a philosophy professor at the

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...

. His translation of

Giovanni Baldelli Giovanni Baldelli (1914–1986) was an Italian anarchist theorist, best known for his 1971 work ''Social Anarchism'' which defines social anarchism and provides a framework for its introduction. Baldelli also wrote poetry, plays and philosophic ...

's ''Social Anarchism'' sustained

Howard Ehrlich Howard J. Ehrlich (1932–2015) was a sociologist, educator, and author. Early life and career Howard J. Ehrlich was born and raised in New York City. He later graduated from Columbus, Ohio, public schools. He studied sociology at Ohio St ...

's journal ''Social Anarchism'' for many years. Wieck had translated the volume from Italian but soon after its printing, the publisher went bankrupt and the books were not sold until they were offered to Wieck a decade later as part of liquidating the publisher's assets. Ehrlich offered the book to encourage subscriptions. Wieck also presented at the Boston 1979

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...

conference. He died July 1, 1997.

Selected works

* ''A Field of Broken Stones'' * ''Woman from Spillertown: A Memoir of Agnes Burns Wieck'' (1992)

References

External links

David Wieck papers and archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wieck, David 1921 births 1997 deaths American anarchists American pacifists

Career

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links