''The War Within: America's Battle over Vietnam'' is a

non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

book by Tom Wells that was published by

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

on April 13, 1994. This book discusses the influence of the

anti-war movement An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to ...

had over American policy decisions affecting the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, proposing that the movement had a significant impact on restricting, minimizing, or ending the war." The book describes the domestic struggle over the war. Although neither definitive nor comprehensive, it does present the views of both sides on the events of the period after 1965.

Thesis

The book is an expanded version of Wells' doctoral dissertation in

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

at the University of California, where he studied under political activist

Todd Gitlin Todd Alan Gitlin (January 6, 1943 – February 5, 2022) was an American sociologist, political activist and writer, novelist, and cultural commentator. He wrote about the mass media, politics, intellectual life and the arts, for both popular an ...

. In this study, Wells advocated the view that the anti-war movement was not a failure. He believed that, in fact, it "played a major role in constraining, de-escalating and ending the war." Indeed, in his opinion, the movement could have been more successful had its activists not failed to "appreciate their actual power." Wells developed his thesis in ten chronologically organized chapters. He devotes more than half of the work to the period of 1967–1970, in addition to analyzing the movement's public impact.O.Edmonds Anthony
"
''The History Teacher'', May 1997

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:War Within 1994 non-fiction books Vietnam War books University of California Press books