An exceptional biography of a radical pacifist and outspoken advocate for the poor

Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century
JOHN LOUGHERY & BLYTHE RANDOLPH
(Simon & Schuster, 448 PP, £23.26)

The image of Martin Gugino, the Catholic Worker knocked to the ground by police in Buffalo, New York, lying bleeding on a pavement, has been one of the most iconic of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Why was a 75-year-old pacifist standing between protestors and armed police? President Trump said he was an Antifa provocateur. A better answer – and one that also explains why, across the world, Catholic Workers share their homes with the destitute, risk arrest to deface nuclear weapons silos and rise before dawn to slice bread to feed the queues at their soup kitchens – can be found in the pages of this masterful biography of the movement’s founder, Dorothy Day.

This is a phenomenal piece of research. Pulitzer-nominated John Loughery, and Blythe Randolph, are both experienced biographers, and combed Day’s diaries and letters, oral history transcripts and clippings from the sizeable archive dedicated to her at Marquette University in Milwaukee, as well as archdiocesan and university libraries, for new angles and anecdotes. The extensive list of interviewees is a snapshot of the American Church: who but Dorothy Day could bring together New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Martha Hennessy, a radical pacifist (and Day’s granddaughter) who is currently awaiting sentencing for breaking into a naval submarine base.