Nonviolence: Theory and Practice [Paperback]

This highly regarded anthology offers a broad array of writings from the leading theorists and practitioners of nonviolence. The diverse selections promote critical thinking about the nature and efficacy of both violence and nonviolence and enable readers to discover the many ways in which nonviolence can be employed to achieve meaningful objectives.

The Third Edition of Nonviolence in Theory and Practice incorporates changes intended to clarify and refine: a new article on nonviolence and Islam that better illustrates that relationship; a selection by Thomas Merton that further demonstrates the role of nonviolence in Christianity; a new selection by Gandhi that better explicates his concept of satyagraha; a groundbreaking article that quantifies the efficacy of nonviolence; Gene Sharp’s list of 198 nonviolent tactics, and more. Whether readers embrace nonviolence or ultimately dismiss it as naïve, they cannot fully consider its many dimensions without the understandings provided in these thought-provoking readings. 

Part I: ORIGINS

NONVIOLENCE IN EASTERN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

1. The Ethics of Jainism (I. C. Sharma)

2. From The Way of Lao Tzu

3. From The Dhammapada

4. On the Bhagavad-Gita (Doris Hunter)

JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, AND ISLAM

5. Nonviolence in the Talmud (Reuven Kimelman)

6. How Transforming Power Has Been Used in the Past by Early Christians (Lawrence S. Apsey)

7. Saint Maximus the Confessor on Nonviolence (Thomas Merton)

8. Islam, Nonviolence, and Global Transformation (Razi Ahmad)

SECULAR ORIGINS: CHALLENGES TO INJUSTICE AND GOVERNMENT POWER

9. From The Crito (Plato)

10. Civil Disobedience (Henry David Thoreau)

Part II: THREE MODERN PHILOSOPHERS OF NONVIOLENCE: Tolstoy, Gandhi, and King

NONRESISTANCE TO EVIL

11. Letter to Ernest Howard Crosby (Leo Tolstoy)

FROM PASSIVE RESISTANCE TO DIRECT ACTION

12. Satyagraha: Congress Report on the Punjab Disorders (Mohandas K. Gandhi)

13. Satyagraha in Action (Joan Bondurant)

ACTIVE NONVIOLENCE

14. How Transforming Power Was Used in Modern Times—Against Race Prejudice in America (Lawrence S. Apsey)

15. Letter from Birmingham Jail (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Part III: WOMEN AND NONVIOLENCE

THE PIONEERS

16. The Women of the Bible and Greece (David Daube)

17. Nonviolence and Women (Margaret Hope Bacon)

WOMEN AND MILITANT NONVIOLENCE IN THE NUCLEAR AGE

18. On Revolution and Equilibrium (Barbara Deming)

19. Molly Rush and the Plowshares Eight (Liane Ellison Norman)

CONTEMPORARY FEMINISM AND NONVIOLENCE

20. Maternal Nonviolence: A Truth in the Making (Sara Ruddick)

Part IV: PACIFISM

21. The Moral Equivalent of War (William James)

22. The Pacifist Spirit (A. A. Milne)

23. Impossible Pacifism: Jews, the Holocaust, and Nonviolence (Evelyn Wilcock)

24. From The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle (J. Glenn Gray)

25. Peace through Strength (Liane Ellison Norman)

26. Pacifism and Invasion (Jessie Wallace Hughan)

27. War, Power, and Nonviolence (Robert L. Holmes)

Part V: THE PRACTICE OF NONVIOLENCE

PERSONAL PERFECTION

28. Feelings and Perceptions (Thich Nhat Hanh)

29. Learning True Love (Sister Chân Không)

30. Pacifism as a Way of Life (Richard Taylor)

31. A Muslim Views the Promise of Nonviolence (Ibrahaim Abdil-Mu'id [Clayton] Ramey)

NONVIOLENCE AS A POLITICAL TOOL

32. Nonviolent Action: An Active Technique of Struggle (Gene Sharp)

33. Why Civil Resistance Works (Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth)

34. Liberation without War: Is There a Nonviolent Way to Overthrow Dictators and Achieve Democracy? (Jack DuVall)

PRINCIPLED POLITICAL AND LABOR NONVIOLENCE

35. Cesar Chavez and Principled Nonviolent Strategy (José-Antonio Orosco)

36. Satyagraha in Tibet (Samdhong Losang Tenzin)

37. Loving One's Enemies (Barry L. Gan)

NONVIOLENCE, NATURE, AND ANIMAL RIGHTS

38. Reverence for Life (Albert Schweitzer)

39. Jaina Cosmology and Gaia Theory (Christopher Key Chapple)

40. Ahimsa (Arundhati Roy)

41. The Indian Way (Richard Deats)

42. Nonviolence and Animal Rights (Gary L. Francione)

Part VI: EXAMPLES OF NONVIOLENCE

NONVIOLENCE IN ASIA

43. The Peacemaker of the Pashtun Past (Karl E. Meyer)

44. The Philippines: The Nonviolent Revolution That Surprised the World (Richard Deats)

45. Jungle Nonviolence (Stephen Braun)

NONVIOLENCE IN AFRICA

46. Nonviolence Plays a Role in Ending Apartheid in South Africa (The Center for the Study of Conflict)

NONVIOLENCE IN THE WEST

47. Nonviolent Resistance against the Nazis in Norway and Holland during World War II (Ernst Schwarcz)

48. Lithuania’s Nonviolent Struggle (Richard L. Deats)

49. Transforming Power in the Labor Movement—Cesar Chavez (Karen Eppler)

NONVIOLENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

50. The Druze of the Golan: A Case of Nonviolent Resistance (R. Scott Kennedy)

51. Living Truth: A Jewish Perspective (Allan Solomonow)

52. Nonviolent Resistance: A Strategy for the Occupied Territories (Mubarak E. Awad)

53. Nonviolence in the Israeli Women’s Peace Movement (Gila Svirsky)

54. Nonviolence: Ordinary Palestinians Fight for Their Freedom (Lucy Nusseibeh)