Nuclear Summer: The Clash of Communities at the Seneca Women's Peace Encampment

by Louise Krasniewicz

Overview

When thousands of women gathered in 1983 to protest the stockpiling of nuclear weapons at a rural upstate New York military depot, the area was shaken by their actions. What so disturbed residents that they organized counterdemonstrations, wrote hundreds of letters to local newspapers, verbally and physically harassed the protestors, and nearly rioted to stop one of the protest marches? Louise Krasniewicz reconstructs the drama surrounding the Women’s Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice in Seneca County, New York, analyzing it as a clash both between and within communities. She shows how debates about gender and authority—including questions of morality, patriotism, women’s roles, and sexuality—came to overshadow arguments about the risks of living in a nuclear world. Vivid ethnography and vibrant social history, this work will engage readers interested in American culture, women’s studies, peace studies, and cultural anthropology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501727979
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2018
Series:	The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Louise Krasniewicz is an artist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

Nuclear Summer cuts through conceptual chain-link fences and applies the rich intersection of feminist and poststructural analyses to unravel complicated tensions that exploded during the summer of 1983 at the Seneca Women's Peace Encampment. Krasniewicz leads the reader through historical contexts of the county, the formation of the encampment, initial perceptions of the peace camp by the local community, and the development of the relationship between camp women and members of the local community. Analysis of conversations, videotapes, brochures, clothing, songs and ritual, protest events, posters, and editorial letters make it clear that the emergent clashes did not necessarily arise from differing opinions over whether the United States should produce, store, and deploy nuclear weapons but instead were linked intimately to Foucauldian-type wars concerning notions of 'real women' and 'good Americans.'

--Lynn Wilson "Man"

From the Publisher

Analyzing a local conflict that made national news, anthropologist Krasniewicz has constructed an intriguing if jargon-heavy book that explores differing visions of America, community, political protest and sexual identity. In 1983, thousands of women gathered at an upstate New York encampment to protest the nearby stockpiling of nuclear weapons. Many local residents resented the protesters, and one confrontation, at a bridge in the town of Waterloo, turned violent. Krasniewicz, slightly sympathetic to the protesters but retaining a spirit of inquiry, videotaped them in 1983 and later interviewed a range of participants in the conflict; from this collage of sources she then re-creates the incident through a fictionalized narrative account and a dramatic reenactment. She shows how the nuclear issue was overshadowed by the townspeople's concerns about the encampment's condoning of lesbianism, its refusal to fly the American flag on the Fourth of July and its antipatriarchal protests. She notes schisms within the encampment over issues like feminism and how both protesters and residents manipulated for their own ends the myth that the Seneca County locals were members of an idyllic rural community. Photos not seen by PW. (June)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Nuclear Summer cuts through conceptual chain-link fences and applies the rich intersection of feminist and poststructural analyses to unravel complicated tensions that exploded during the summer of 1983 at the Seneca Women's Peace Encampment. Krasniewicz leads the reader through historical contexts of the county, the formation of the encampment, initial perceptions of the peace camp by the local community, and the development of the relationship between camp women and members of the local community. Analysis of conversations, videotapes, brochures, clothing, songs and ritual, protest events, posters, and editorial letters make it clear that the emergent clashes did not necessarily arise from differing opinions over whether the United States should produce, store, and deploy nuclear weapons but instead were linked intimately to Foucauldian-type wars concerning notions of 'real women' and 'good Americans.'

Man - Lynn Wilson