Sometimes intensely moving, and often inspiring, these memoirs show that in some cases, individual conscientious objectors – many well-educated and politically aware – sought to reform the penal system from within either by publicizing its dysfunction or through further resistance to authority.

Peter Brock is a professor emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Toronto.

'With These Strange Criminals, Peter Brock has put together a fascinating anthology of prison memoirs authored by conscientious objectors to war. Brock is a pre-eminent historian of pacifism as an ideology and as a movement in the modern Western world. The memoirs he has selected here demonstrate his rich and nuanced understanding of the topic.'

James C. Juhnke, Department of History, Bethel College:

'These memoirs are noteworthy as expressions of the human spirit in times of stress and struggle. Peter Brock is one of the premier scholars in the world of peace history and he has made a significant contribution to the field with this collection. The memoirs reveal the dehumanizing prison conditions in different countries and illuminates the responses of imprisoned conscientious objectors.'