Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea (Modern Library Chronicles) [Hardcover]

Mark Kurlansky (Author), Dalai Lama (Foreword)

Book Description

Series: Modern Library Chronicles | Publication Date: September 12, 2006

In this timely, highly original, and controversial narrative, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky discusses nonviolence as a distinct entity, a course of action, rather than a mere state of mind. Nonviolence can and should be a technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars, he asserts, which is why it is the preferred method of those who speak truth to power.

Nonviolence is a sweeping yet concise history that moves from ancient Hindu times to present-day conflicts raging in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kurlansky also brings into focus just why nonviolence is a “dangerous” idea, and asks such provocative questions as: Is there such a thing as a “just war”? Could nonviolence have worked against even the most evil regimes in history?

Kurlansky draws from history twenty-five provocative lessons on the subject that we can use to effect change today. He shows how, time and again, violence is used to suppress nonviolence and its practitioners–Gandhi and Martin Luther King, for example; that the stated deterrence value of standing national armies and huge weapons arsenals is, at best, negligible; and, encouragingly, that much of the hard work necessary to begin a movement to end war is already complete. It simply needs to be embraced and accelerated.

Engaging, scholarly, and brilliantly reasoned, Nonviolence is a work that compels readers to look at history in an entirely new way. This is not just a manifesto for our times but a trailblazing book whose time has come.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kurlansky applies the microhistorical approach of his bestellers (Cod; Salt) to the loftier subject of nonviolence—which, he observes, is so "profoundly dangerous" to the powers that be that it has never existed as an idea in and of itself, only as the absence of violence. "Active practitioners of nonviolence are always seen as a threat," he says, and the conflict between authority and nonviolent resistance becomes a "moral argument" that, all too often, the nonviolent lose by abandoning their ideal in the name of self-defense. But as he studies the history of nonviolence from the dawn of Christianity to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Kurlansky can also point to prominent victories, like Gandhi's quest for Indian independence and the Eastern European resistance to the Soviets. There are plenty of missed opportunities, too; the American Revolution, he suggests, need not have escalated into war; "protest and economic sabotage" might have forced Britain to withdraw from the colonies. Sometimes, Kurlansky's impassioned rhetoric turns argumentative, and his "lessons"—e.g., "behind every war there are always a few founding lies"—offer scant practical guidance to those wanting to take up the nonviolent mantle themselves. (Sept. 5)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Kurlansky's particular point is the last of the lessons referred to in the subtitle: "the hard work of beginning a movement to end war has already been done." All the lessons he notes are important, but he is at his best when retelling popular stories of nonviolence practiced at various times and places over the course of several thousand years, though from a scholarly perspective his language is woefully imprecise. If he introduces readers to the deep, multicultural roots of nonviolence and prompts examination of the variety of governments that have found nonviolence threatening, the level of public discourse on violence may rise. If his blanket dismissal of pacifism as passive provokes nonviolent activists to respond, perhaps what may be learned about the lies behind all wars will lead to wiser decisions by more citizens. And if the casual reference to "the 58,000 people who were killed" in the Vietnam War prompts second thoughts about who should count among those caught up in the march of violence, all the better. Steven Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library; First Edition edition (September 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679643354
• ISBN-13: 978-0679643357
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #746,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Kurlansky is a New York Times bestselling and James A. Beard Award-winning author. He is the recipient of a Bon Appétit American Food and Entertaining Award for Food Writer of the Year, and the Glenfiddich Food and Drink Award for Food Book of the year.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the best introduction yet written on Nonviolence., March 28, 2007

By 

Quinn (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea (Modern Library Chronicles) (Hardcover)

Mark Kurlansky has written a very concise, fascinating and readable history of nonviolence as both a philosophy and an effective tactic for social change. He begins with a discussion of the spiritual roots of nonviolence in each of the major world religions and traces how each religion was subverted when it was co-opted by the state which began using it as an instrument to justify state power through warfare. We see this most dramatically with Pope Urban II's historic speech that began the Crusades. Variations of this speech, which asserted that the war was God's will and the obligation of every "good Christian," have been used by politicians ever since to drag their reluctant citizenry into bloody wars.

Kurlansky goes on to define common themes that have driven one war after another over many centuries from the Crusades through the current war in Iraq and concludes with 'The 25 Lessons,' including:

3. Practitioners of nonviolence are seen as enemies of the state.
4. Once a state takes over a religion, the religion loses its nonviolent
teachings.
6. Somewhere behind every war there are always a few founding lies.
8. People who go to war start to resemble their enemy.
9. A conflict between a violent and a nonviolent force is a moral
argument. If the violent side can provoke the nonviolent side into
violence, the violent side has won.
10. The problem lies not in the nature of man, but the nature of power.
11. The longer a war lasts, the less popular it becomes.
12. The state imagines it is impotent without a military because it cannot
conceive of power without force.
15. A shooting war is not necessary to overthrow an established power but
is used to consolidate the revolution itself.
16. Violence does not resolve. It always leads to more violence.
20. Wars do not have to be sold to the general public if they can be
carried out by an all-volunteer professional military.
21. Once you start the business of killing, you just get "deeper and
deeper" without limits.
22. Violence always comes with a supposedly rational explanation - which is
only dismissed as irrational if the violence fails.
25. The hard work of beginning a movement to end war has already been done.

I've read widely on the subject of nonviolence and this is this is the most concise, clear, pragmatic book I've read yet. This book also includes a bibliography of other classic works on the subject for further reading. Kurlansky has done an excellent job of writing in a language that Americans in particular will understand. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to anyone interested in peace and nonviolence and I'm confident it will change your thinking. Peace.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stimulates your thinking on war and peace, September 24, 2006

By 

J. C. Beadles (Silver Spring, MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea (Modern Library Chronicles) (Hardcover)

While I don't share some of Mr. Kurlansky's political thinking, his book is well worth reading because it stimulates one's thinking on the big issues of war and peace. He gives some important recent examples (e.g., America in the 1960s, Eastern Europe in the 1980s, etc.) where nonviolence worked or might have worked (e.g., in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). I am extremely skeptical of his apparent claim that nonviolence by itself could have ended slavery in the US or defeated Hitler. However, the important point Mr. Kurlansky makes is that nonviolence can work and that more people should be inspired by it and use it to resolve seemingly intractable disputes. The track record of war as a means of settling many disputes certainly is not great.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good primer, July 29, 2007

By 

J. Breneman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea (Modern Library Chronicles) (Hardcover)

Kurlansky's rather small book (only about 180pgs) shows a number of examples of nonviolence, from secular and religious influences, that are presented in a fluid manner, not done in a text-book fashion so you won't feel like you're reading a how-to book.

Out of all of the books I have read on the subject of nonviolence, I didn't really pick up on anything I hadn't already read or learned about elsewhere, however, this would make a good PRIMER for those new to the philosophy of nonviolence. If you're interested in some real meat and potatos, look elsewhere (Muste, Zinn, Sharp, Wink, McCarthy).

Am I saying it's a bad book? Definitely not. It was well written; my only wish is that he decides to write a more in-depth book in the future.