Not by the Sword

Reviews / Votes

"This rare investigation of American hate-mongering provides a unique glimpse as well at the power of tolerance and love. Once Watterson places us inside the Lincoln, Nebraska, apartment of the 'Klansman' of the subtitle, it's almost impossible to put this book down."-Patricia Holt, San Francisco Chronicle



"Watterson has written one of the most powerful, painful, yet healing stories about our most explosive issue: race. Her book [Not by the Sword] is not only literally true but also symbolically true for us as a people-if we acknowledge and transform who and what we are."-Cornel West, author of Race Matters





"Not by the Sword tells an astonishing story of daring and resourcefulness in making contact with another who would negate one's very right to exist. . . . Watterson's account of the events is fascinating, and the story itself is so extraordinary that one cannot but be gripped by it."-Paul L. Wachtel, Washington Post Book World


"Watterson wrote a book about true humanity and love for fellow man that conveys a new sense of what is possible. Her effort, Not by the Sword, is uplifting, yet not mawkish. It is chilling, yet not hyperbolic. She could have easily messed up such a dramatic story. Watterson did not."-John Hanchette, Washington Bureau, Gannett News "Not by the Sword has High Holy Days written all over it. It's an epic of teshuva, healing, and the great potential of human beings to change. . . . [Watterson] reveals much about Weisser's background that might explain why he worked so hard to give others the opportunity to change."-Sandee Brawarsky, Jewish Week

"The underlying structure [of Not by the Sword] is a race against time. Readers will plunge ahead, increasingly awed by the events taking place in the story, eager to know what happens, amazed at each stage of Trapp's remarkable rebirth as a new-though still flawed and deeply troubled- human being."-Jim Baker, Kansas City Jewish Chronicle