Tobias Kelly is Professor of Political and Legal Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh where his research focuses on the cultural history of war, violence and human rights. He has a PhD from the London School of Economics and has held visiting positions at New York University and the University of Oxford. He lives in in Edinburgh with his family.
[An] excellent book... [Kelly] sheds light on a little considered
aspect of the war
*Daily Telegraph*
A moving tribute to moral courage, and a scholarly memorial of more
innocent times
*Allan Mallinson, Spectator*
[Battles of Conscience] takes five pacifists...and skilfully weaves
their stories into a broader narrative about how claims of
conscience ruled the lives of the 60,000 British citizens who stood
apart as conscientious objectors through [WWII]
*Times Literary Supplement*
[An] intriguing, original book... Kelly makes a fair case
for...[the] importance in thinking through the collective and
individual duties of citizens in a national public emergency
*Literary Review*
An intriguing, original book . . . Kelly is sympathetic towards but
clear-eyed about his cast of characters . . . [and] their
importance in thinking through the collective and individual duties
of citizens in a national public emergency . . . questions which
are hardly irrelevant in an age of pandemics, lockdowns and vaccine
mandates
*Literary Review*
Tobias Kelly's scholarly examination of British pacifism neatly
addresses the gap between past reality and current historical
narrative. Much more has been written about the (far fewer)
conscientious objectors who refused to fight in the First World War
than those in the Second . . . This says a great deal about how we
remember the 1939-45 conflict. Widely regarded as the right war to
fight, there seems to be little space for pacifists in discussions
of the war against the Axis . . . The timing of this book seems to
be particularly prescient, arriving in the middle of another
conflict - sparked by Russian's invasion of -- in which freedom and
oppression are clearly delineated. What do pacifists do in such
circumstances? And how should the state treat them?
*History Extra*
Tobias Kelly's book takes five pacifists, four men and one woman,
and skilfully weaves their stories into a broader narrative . . . A
long and proud tradition of being permitted to act according to
conscience is very much part of Britain's self-image . . . that
there was space for pacifists to lay claim to the values of
sacrifice and citizenship while not taking up weapons, ultimately
played a not insignificant role in Britain's record of
tolerance
*Times Literary Supplement*
This is a sympathetic and nuanced study that challenges the overly
simplistic wartime narrative that pervades British culture
*History Today*
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