Our Fighting Faith

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In these addresses, recently delivered to Harvard audiences, James Bryant Conant discusses the fundamental issues of the war. Few men, he says, will fight fiercely against desperate odds unless they are imbued with a living faith, a faith which arises from the background of their lives. America’s background, its unique heritage, is an ideal of freedom and equality, of a country in which there are no classes, where success rewards only integrity of character and excellence of performance. This vision is what we are fighting to defend and to maintain in the future. Conant’s presentation of the situation is simple but deeply moving; it is a statement of war aims that will give new courage and determination to the whole country. The final chapter in the book is a reprint of his article in the Atlantic Monthly of July, 1942, on the use of our colleges in wartime.