Customer Reviews

Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice And 21st Century Potential

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Gene Sharp has done more to advance our understanding and practice of strategic nonviolence than anyone except perhaps Mahatma Gandhi himself. Waging Nonviolent Struggle is a compendium of his wisdom developed over half a century of serious study, writing, and consulting. If I were to recommend one volume on nonviolent struggle to newcomers and experts alike, it would be this one. Its argument is nuanced with deep social and political theory and also includes a practical guide to strategic planning for activists.

During the past five decades, Sharp has analyzed and systematized historic examples of types of nonviolent direct action; he has observed, advised, and learned from contemporary movements, and charted directions for the future. Waging Nonviolent Struggle is the culmination of that work. It begins with an instructive autobiographical preface that reviews the evolution of his thought, proceeds to a concise introduction to the underlying theory of power and nonviolent action and then provides 23 short case studies that illustrate its efficacy. The finale of the book is a practical guide to strategic planners that draws on Sharp's research and experience, charting the future of nonviolent direct action as a reflexive and deliberate strategy rather than improvised response to concrete historical situations.

This will be the foundational text for introductory courses at the nonviolent equivalent of the war academies; it will teach scholars and guide activists. It contains the information one needs to have to understand the tectonic shifts in geopolitics of recent decades, in which nonviolent people power rather the military brute force has been primarily responsible for reshaping the globe. Yes, freedom is on the march, but not for the reasons trumpeted in the halls of political privilege.

As I become more familiar with Gene Sharp and his work, I am increasingly convinced that he is a tremendously important scholar.

The title aptly describes the raw basis for this study: the application of organized, efficient strategy to active nonviolent struggle instead of to destructive violent pursuits.

Don't be apprehensive about approaching this book, despite that it may appear to be daunting or complex subject matter. Surely, it is large (at over 500 pages), but Sharp uses efficient, clear language that all students and readers can understand. His authority on the matter is encyclopedic and makes this long text rather joyful.

Visit the Albert Einstein Institute website ([...]) to read about the author, as well as to download a few shorter PDF books about nonviolence and politics.

These downloads are free and present a practical way to preview Sharp's intellect before you purchase Waging Nonviolent Struggle.

And, especially if you're a natural leader, I hope you that you do buy this book (or rent it from a library). We need more leaders equipped with the courage to be humane and nonviolent. We've had our fill of leaders who are warriors, soldiers, warmongers and tyrants. Those kinds of leaders resort to the fist or the gun or the missile instead of using our spectacular brainpower to compromise.

The intelligence is present in the human genepool. We just need to practice using our intellects to safeguard human rights, rather than to abuse them.

Reading Gene Sharp's books is an important step in the direction of a better world, for people and animals alike.

Thanks for reading.

Senior scholar at the Albert Einstein Institution of Boston, Massachusetts Gene Sharp and his team of like-minded researchers apply 50 years of history, academics, and practical experience to present Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential, a meticulous accounting of how nonviolent methodologies can combat dictatorships, war, genocide, and oppression. Waging Nonviolent Struggle is particularly valuable in its use of logic and close analysis of specific historical cases of nonviolent struggle to debunk common myths concerning the practice. Such myths include the contention that nonviolence is ineffective against dictatorships and genocide, or that nonviolent methodologies rely upon an appeal to the moral character of the opponent (in fact, nonviolent coercive techniques such as economic boycott and social noncompliance have an impact regardless of the humanitarian stature of the regime in question). The high value of properly applied and disciplined nonviolent resistance is demonstrated, in particular because nonviolent methodologies have the potential to bring successful results at a lower overall mortality rate than violent methodologies, and uninvolved third parties (a.k.a. "innocent civilians") are less likely to suffer collateral damage. Scrutinized case studies, overviewed and documented by a variety of different researchers, range from a successful protest of German women in Berlin to save their Jewish husbands (who had intermarried) from deportation and execution during World War II; the 1989 student uprising in China that ended in a tragic massacre; the successful defense of democracy in Thailand after a long succession of military coups; the successful removal of genocidal dictator Slobodan Milosevic from power in Serbia; and much more. In addition, Waging Nonviolent Struggle offers a "handbook" concerning how to coordinate nonviolent resistance with an eye on practical results and success. Written especially to answer the demanding need for realistic alternatives to violent conflict, Waging Nonviolent Struggle succeeds admirably in its mission and carries the absolute highest recommendation.

This is a great book. It is still available online but the prices resellers here are charging are outrageous. $90 for a copy? A new hardback copy can be purchased for $29.95 plus shipping elsewhere through a simple search. Hopefully Amazon will stock it instead of letting their customers be exploited in this way! The way it is now, Amazon is simply losing business.

It's tough to know what finally pushes people over the edge, to take action to oppose oppression or economic predation.
But this is a time when, increasingly around the world, those conditions are being met. People who have finally decided to resist- those who say, "I'm sick of this, and I won't take it any more!" need this book.
This book does not tell you what to think. Rather, it tells how sleazebags like Slobodon Milosevic can be removed while bloodshed is minimized, how the power recognized by Ghandi, King, and many others can be harnessed to make a better world. The case studies are powerfully revealing of what works, and some of what doesn't. Gene Sharp's earlier book about the mechanics of nonviolent revolution, "198 Methods of Nonviolent Action" was written in 1980, yet we are told it was widely used by the resisters in Egypt, and elsewhere it still exerts a powerful influence on brave people, young and old, who want to change the world for the better.
People who do not wish to fall into the degrading trap of becoming as barbaric as their oppressors.
Not surprisingly, his works are correctly seen as dangerous radical heresy by the oligarchs, and are hard to find in the US, and in other countries where the power elite have a solid grip on the media. It's the same here in France- Amazon.fr does not have this book, and has apparently no plans to get it.

Get it. Read what the elite do not want you to read- that YOU are the ultimate power, and that resistance works.

The price of this book new is under twenty bucks but if you are willing to "extend" your "horizons" about who you will order if from. Some are getting new ones by finding out where to buy it at a fair rate. If I get too specific in here the comment will not stay and the rip off will continue.

Gene Sharp has captured most of his ideas on planning a struggle to non-violently overthrow dictatorships in this book. The historical background from recent non-violent revolutions should give hope to everyone who is involved in the struggle to be free of oppression.