So, in his attempt to "reveal the diversity both of conscientious objection and of governmental responses to it," [Peter Brock] ranges across times (from 1525 to the Second World War) and places (Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and so on).

So in addition to stories concerning the usual suspects (Mennonites and Quakers), Brock also brings to view, among others, the experiences of Seventh-day Adventists in Civil War America, Nazarenes in Austria-Hungary, Leo Tolstoy's disciples in Russia, and Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany.

In First World War Germany, many objectors were confined to psychiatric wards, since, according to German policy, any soldier who refused to serve the "Fatherland" in a time of danger "must be mentally ill."