Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980)

As we are reminded by the Zinn Education Project, today is the birthday of Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980), co-founder, with Peter Maurin, of the Catholic Worker Movement and newspaper. Here is a short list of titles, most of which are about Dorothy Day and The Catholic Worker movement and newspaper. The FBI still includes the movement on its list of “domestic advocacy groups” that it believes necessary to keep tabs on. I’ve also added a list of “further reading” on Christian nonviolence in both the radical Catholic and Protestant justice and peace traditions.

The Catholic Worker Movement:

• Coles, Robert. A Spectacle Unto the World: The Catholic Worker Movement. New York: Viking, 1973.
• Coles, Robert. Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1987.
• Cornell, Thomas C. and James H. Forest, eds. A Penny a Copy: Readings from the Catholic Worker. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
• Coy, Patrick, ed. A Revolution of the Heart: Essays on the Catholic Worker. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1988.
• Ellis, Marc. A Year at the Catholic Worker. New York: Paulist Press, 1979.
• Ellis, Marc. Peter Maurin: Prophet in the Twentieth Century. New York: Paulist Press, 1981.
• Ellsberg, Robert, ed. By Little and By Little: The Selected Writings of Dorothy Day. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983.
• Ellsberg, Robert, ed. The Duty of Delight: The Diaries of Dorothy Day. New York: Image Books, 2008.
• Ellsberg, Robert, ed. All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day. New York: Image Books, 2010.
• Forest, Jim. All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2011.
• Piehl, Mel. Breaking Bread: The Catholic Worker Movement and the Origins of Catholic Radicalism in America. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1982.
• Roberts, Nancy L. Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1984.

Further Reading:

• Akers, Keith. The Lost Religion of Jesus: Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity. New York: Lantern Books, 2000.
• Barbé, Dominique. Grace and Power: Base Communities and Nonviolence in Brazil. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.
• Barbé, Dominique. A Theology of Conflict and Other Writings on Nonviolence. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989.
• Bardacke, Frank. Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers. London: Verso, 2012.
• Berrigan, Daniel. The Steadfastness of the Saints: A Journey of Peace and War in Central and North America. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985.
• Berryman, Phillip. Liberation Theology. New York: Pantheon Books, 1987.
• Berryman, Phillip. Our Unfinished Business: The U.S. Catholics Bishops’ Letters on Peace and the Economy. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989.
• Boff, Leonardo. St. Francis: A Model for Human Liberation. New York: Crossroad, 1984.
• Dalton, Frederick John. The Moral Vision of Cesar Chavez. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003.
• Day, Mark. Forty Acres: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers. New York: Praegar, 1971.
• Dombrowski, Daniel. Christian Pacifism. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991. 
• Douglass, James W. The Nonviolent Cross: A Theology of Revolution and Peace. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
• Douglass, James W. Resistance and Contemplation: The Way of Liberation. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972.
• Douglass, James W. Lightening East to West: Jesus, Gandhi and the Nuclear Age. New York: Crossroad, 1983.
• Garcia, Matt. From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012.
• Garrow, David J. Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. New York: William Morrow, 1986.
• Gray, Francine du Plessix. Divine Disobedience: Profiles in Catholic Radicalism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.
• Hauerwas, Stanley. Performing the Faith: Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Nonviolence. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2004.
• Levy, Jacques. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.
• Long, Michael G., ed. Christian Peace and Nonviolence: A Documentary History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2011.
• Matthiessen, Peter. Sal Si Puedes: Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution. New York: Random House, 1970.
• Merton, Thomas. The Nonviolent Alternative. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980.
• Musto, Ronald G. The Catholic Peace Tradition. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986.
• Nepstad, Sharon Erickson. Religion and War Resistance in the Plowshares Movement. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Orosco, José-Antonio. Cesar Chavez and the Common Sense of Nonviolence. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2008.
• O’Rourke, William. The Harrisburg 7 and the New Catholic Left. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2nd ed., 2012.
• Pawel, Miriam. The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2014.
• Peters, Shawn Francis. The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Smith, Christian. The Emergence of Liberation Theology: Radical Religion and Social Movement Theory. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
• Taylor, Ronald B. Chavez and the Farmworkers.Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1975.
• Tolstoy, Leo. Writings on Civil Disobedience and Nonviolence. Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publ., 1987.
• Wallis, Jim. Peacemakers: Christian Voices from the New Abolitionist Movement. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.
• Washington, James Melvin, ed. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1986.
• Wink, Walter, ed. Peace is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000.
• Yoder, John Howard. The War of the Lamb: The Ethics of Nonviolence and Peacemaking. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009.