Always Resisting: Choosing Prison Over Vietnam and Awakening to American Racism

In this memoir, Eric Newhall traces his life and political evolution with a particular focus on his time inside Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution, where he was incarcerated for refusing to participate in the Vietnam War. Beginning with his youth in an all-white neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, he describes his undergraduate experience at Occidental College in Los Angeles (1963-1967), his time in prison, and the powerful impact that his time behind bars had on both his 34-year marriage and 44-year teaching career.

His memoir is a reminder that much work remains to be done, that subtle racism takes many forms and can be found even in outwardly progressive families like the one in which he was raised, and that the social problems examined here are even more pressing today than they were during the 1960s. The book will be particularly compelling to readers concerned by the threat to democracy posed by persistent war, authoritarianism and racism.

Eric Newhall taught courses in modern and contemporary American literature and culture at Occidental College in Los Angeles from 1975-2019. He served a term as associate dean of the college and was the original director of the Multicultural Summer Institute, a summer program designed to recruit and retain historically underrepresented students.