"During the first three months of 1972 a trial took place in the middle district of Pennsylvania: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA versus Eqbal Ahmad, Philip Berrigan, Elizabeth McAlister, Neil McLaughlin, Anthony Scoblick, Mary Cain Scoblick, Joseph Wenderoth. The defendants stood accused of conspiring to raid federal offices, to bomb government property, and to kidnap presidential advisor Henry Kissinger. Six of those seven individuals are, or were, Roman Catholic clergy-priests and nuns. Members of the new 'Catholic Left.'" -from the introduction When The Harrisburg 7 and the New Catholic Left was originally published in 1972, it remained on The New York Times Book Review "New and Recommended" list for six weeks and was selected as one of the Notable Books of the Year. Now, forty years later, William O'Rourke's book eloquently speaks to a new generation of readers interested in American history and the religious anti-war protest movements of the Vietnam era. O'Rourke brings to life the seven anti-war activists, who were vigorously prosecuted for alleged criminal plots, filling in the drama of the case, the trial, the events, the demonstrations, the panels, and the people. O'Rourke includes a new afterword that presents a sketch of the evolution of protest groups from the 1960s and 1970s, including the history of the New Catholic Left for the past four decades, claiming that "[a]fter the Harrisburg trial, the New Catholic Left became the New Catholic Right."

"As I walked away with my refreshments, I felt something peculiar. It was so strange it stopped me mid-step. I was forty-five years old, and I had felt many things, but never before this particular feeling: I felt a click deep inside. The image the sensation produced in my mind was of a BB, a small round piece of copper-colored lead, falling into a socket. It was a very clear image. A BB is tiny, but the one I imagined felt infinitesimal, microscopic. Yet I felt it, a click, metal on metal-like an expensive, microscopic gear had slipped, some exquisite piece of machinery falling out of alignment. Some medieval example of craftsmanship, a gyroscope, something intricate, needing fine balance. The feeling, the event, was located in my chest, below my left breast. It was thoroughly interior, as if a signal had been sent and registered, what those giant satellite dishes are poised waiting for, a transmission from deep space." -from Chapter 1 That was October 26, 1991, in what became a singularly awful day in the life of William O'Rourke. Minutes later, at the beginning of a Notre Dame football game, he began to suffer his heart attack. O'Rourke's account of that day, and everything that followed, is personal, informative, humorous, and highly literate. With its extended description of what an MI feels like and how people around the patient react, his memoir provides a bedside view of his experience and all of the emotions-both extraordinary and quotidian-that accompanied it. What is startling is how that momentous event, the heart attack, divides life irretrievably into a "before" and "after." Gone are the assumptions of what is safe and healthy; replacing them is a newly-forged relation of mind and body, a treacherous one which breeds a physical paranoia that only lessens after months. O'Rourke vividly describes the extreme pain of the attack, the forced inactivity of recuperation, and the melancholy of embracing life anew while accepting a heightened awareness of mortality. He knows his luck in having supportive family and friends, and uses his time away from normal routine to examine his family history for likely genetic proclivities for heart disease. Through his description of his experience-from MI, to angioplasty, to cardiac catheterization to, fourteen years later, a quintuple bypass and a second round of cardio-rehabilitation-he asks us to change behaviors we can affect and pay attention to our health. It does, after all, come down to this: "Here's to life." Enriched with a medical glossary and selected bibliography, this is a helpful compendium for other recuperating patients and their families, or anyone concerned about heart disease, or interested in memoir.

"During the first three months of 1972 a trial took place in the middle district of Pennsylvania: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA versus Eqbal Ahmad, Philip Berrigan, Elizabeth McAlister, Neil McLaughlin, Anthony Scoblick, Mary Cain Scoblick, Joseph Wenderoth. The defendants stood accused of conspiring to raid federal offices, to bomb government property, and to kidnap presidential advisor Henry Kissinger. Six of those seven individuals are, or were, Roman Catholic clergy--priests and nuns. Members of the new 'Catholic Left.'"--from the introductionWhen "The Harrisburg 7 and the New Catholic Left" was originally published in 1972, it remained on "The New York Times Book Review" "New and Recommended" list for six weeks and was selected as one of the Notable Books of the Year. Now, forty years later, William O'Rourke's book eloquently speaks to a new generation of readers interested in American history and the religious anti-war protest movements of the Vietnam era. O'Rourke brings to life the seven anti-war activists, who were vigorously prosecuted for alleged criminal plots, filling in the drama of the case, the trial, the events, the demonstrations, the panels, and the people. O'Rourke includes a new afterword that presents a sketch of the evolution of protest groups from the 1960s and 1970s, including the history of the New Catholic Left for the past four decades, claiming that " a]fter the Harrisburg trial, the New Catholic Left became the New Catholic Right."

"O'Rourke's book on the Harrisburg trial was a classic when it first appeared and remains a classic of trial reporting, an account even forty years later that is still pertinent to our contemporary situation. His new afterword is a gem of condensed history. It is a boon to journalists, historians, and political analysts, as well as the general reader, to have this book back in print." --David Black, author of "The King of Fifth Avenue" and "The Extinction Event"

Reviews for the first edition:

." . . a paean to the seven religious revolutionaries, a rueful but loving acknowledgment of their 'brave and foolish letters, ' and a solemn threnody for the Catholic left, 'broken by the mortar and pestle of this trial.'" --"New Republic" " The book is] in my opinion, a discovery, not so much about the facts of the trial but about what the antiwar priests and nuns of today mean to Catholic youth."--Herbert Mitgang, "The Progressive" "This is not only the best volume on any of the recent political trials. . . but a clinical x-ray of our society's condition." -- Garry Wills, "The New York Times Book Review"

Since its founding in 1995, Notre Dame Review has become one of America's leading literary magazines. Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, has written, "It really has become one of the most interesting journals in the country." This anthology consists of representative poetry and fiction from its first ten years of publication. Like the magazine itself, the collection includes work by well known authors-Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, and Czeslaw Milosz among the poets; Marilyn Krysl, Arturo Vivante, Frances Sherwood, R. D. Skillings, and Richard Elman, among the fiction writers-while also making room for exciting work by new and emerging writers, some of whom are former Notre Dame MFA students. The anthology also includes poetry and prose by several winners of the Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry and the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction, works that have set standards of excellence for writers and readers around the country. Contributors to this anthology represent a wide range of styles and aesthetic orientations. The reader will find in this collection poems and stories that challenge, surprise, comfort, discomfort, and delight-each in its own unique way. Poetry and fiction from the Notre Dame Review have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize volumes, and Harper's Magazine, among many other publications.