Gandhi's Way provides a primer of Mahatma Gandhi's principles of moral action and conflict resolution. It offers a straightforward, step-by-step approach that can be used in any conflict--at home or in business; in local, national, or international arenas. Juergensmeyer sets out Gandhi's basic methods and illustrates them with practical examples to show how parties at odds can rise above a narrow view of self-interest to find resolutions that are satisfying and beneficial to all involved. The author pits Gandhi's ideas against those of other great social thinkers in a series of imaginary debates that challenge and clarify Gandhi's thinking on issues of violence, anger, and love. He also provides a Gandhian critique of Gandhi himself, and offers viable solutions to some of the gaps in Gandhian theory. Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution was previously published as Fighting with Gandhi and Fighting Fair.
"A crisply written, cogently argued little manual exploring the practical implications of satyagraha ('truth force')." -- Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating, thought-provoking, helpful and heartening book." -- Marjorie Lewellyn Marks, Los Angeles Times
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"A fascinating, thought-provoking, helpful and heartening book."--Los Angeles Times
"Juergensmeyer's book is something of a Gandhian tour de force -- a careful analysis and series of applications of Gandhi's concepts of satyagraha . . . to everyday situations with which most Western readers are familiar."--Religious Studies Review
"This is a manual of instruction in the best sense: a popular reassessment of the activist use of satyagraha in conflict resolution that has depth and a true appreciation for the ethical subtleties of dialectical struggles, and for the multiple dimensions of 'passive resistance.'"--Library Journal
MARK JUERGENSMEYER is director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, professor of sociology, and affiliate professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is an expert on religious violence, conflict resolution and South Asian religion and politics, and has published more than two hundred articles and twenty books. His latest book, Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State (University of California Press, 2008) covers the rise of religious activism from al Qaeda to the Christian militia, and explores its confrontation with secular modernity. It is based on his earlier book, The New Cold War? named by the New York Times as one of the notable books of the year. His widely-read Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence (University of California Press, revised edition 2003), is based on interviews with religious activists around the world--including individuals convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, leaders of Hamas, and abortion clinic bombers in the United States--and was listed by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times as one of the best nonfiction books of the year. His book on Gandhian conflict resolution has been reprinted as Gandhi's Way (University of California Press, Updated Edition, 2005), and was selected as Community Book of the Year at the University of California, Davis. He has edited The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions (Oxford University Press 2006) and Religion in Global Civil Society (Oxford University Press 2005). He is co-editing two encyclopedias--one in global religion and the other in global studies--and is co-editing the Princeton Reader in Religion and Violence. His 2006 Stafford Little Lectures at Princeton University, God and War, will also be published by Princeton University Press. JUERGENSMEYER has received research fellowships from the Wilson Center in Washington D.C., the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is the 2003 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for contributions to the study of religion, and is the 2004 recipient of the Silver Award of the Queen Sofia Center for the Study of Violence in Spain. He received Honorary Doctorates from Lehigh University in 2004 and Roskilde University in Denmark in 2009. He has also received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2006, and the Unitas Distinguished Alumnus Award from Union Theological Seminary, New York City, in 2007. He was elected president of the American Academy of Religion, and chairs the working group on Religion and International Affairs for the national Social Science Research Council. Since the events of September 11 he has been a frequent commentator in the news media, including CNN, NBC, CBS, BBC, NPR, Fox News, ABC's Politically Incorrect, and CNBC's Dennis Miller Show.
This review is from: Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution (Paperback)
It's unfortunate that the people who have read this book do not really understand what nonviolent conflict resolution is about. Most of the readers, I suspect, think like most Americans that if something doesn't work in 5 easy steps, then it doesn't work at all. Many people argue that nonviolence practice doesn't work. Who says so? And, when does violence work? It may appear to work, but it is a temporary solution that always leads to more complicated (and more violent) conflicts. Nonviolence often takes more time and effort to work, but its results are long-lasting.
The Hitler argument doesn't hold up either. How do we know it wouldn't work? There are a few cases of nonviolent opposition to the Nazis that were successful. But, not many people know about them, because any evidence that points to the achievements of nonviolence are often hidden away. Why? Because it threatens the system of violence that society has worked very hard to brain-wash us into believing.
To those who want to argue at the futile quality of Nonviolence, one should ask: Do you submit to every idea or notion just because the majority has accepted it as true? If there weren't those who were brave enough to challenge convention we'd still believe the world was flat or that the sun revolved around the earth. There must be those pioneers who are willing to live by a new belief to change the world.
This book is one of those to support a new way of perceiving and living a better life.
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This book may be easy to read, but the underlying philosophy is anything but. As you read this book, it is very important to keep in mind that Gandhi's means were his goals, his determination was the process, and his Truth openly subject to change. So unlike what we do in our conflict resolutions today, he never applied a tactic or a strategy to achieve a predetermined goal. Gandhi typically started a process to find the Truth and he was adamant in his process, but never stubborn on the goal itself.
I found his imaginary conversations fascinating, especially the one with Sigmund Freud about "Reality" vs. "reality." I also believe that familiarity with the Bhagavad Gita, the spiritual scripture that Gandhi recited on a daily basis will help better grasp his way and the author's point.
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3.0 out of 5 starsCan't we all just get along?, October 20, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution (Paperback)
Some good ideas, if a trifle idealistic. See also Gandhi's autobiography, "My experiments with truth," and Bondurant's "Conquest of Violence." Note that ISBNs 0520223446, 0062504398, and 006250438X are the identical book, published 2/2002, 10/1989, and 1/1986 under the titles "Gandhi's Way," "Fighting Fair," and "Fighting with Gandhi." The titles are the _only_ differences between the three editions.
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