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Rating: 
Summary: Comments on the book that we've received...
Review: "These are powerful stories, about truth overcoming lies, love dissolving evil, and life eclipsing death. Nonviolent valor can end oppression, and the world of the 21st century will be safer, freer, and more humane if it heeds the lessons of this book." - former President Jimmy Carter"In their well-written, often moving book...Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall deliver a compelling argument for the efficacy of nonviolent resistance to tyranny...This book explains how profoundly history has been shaped by men and women who had the courage to act for a cause greater than their self-interest, and thus, could not be conquered by the most ruthless, well-armed adversaries. I recommend it to anyone who believes that power only flows from the barrel of a gun." - Senator John McCain "Hope is a rare commodity in the struggle for justice. This book offers hope, but of a spare, hard-headed kind -- the kind that appeals to the partisan as readily as the prophet -- and it does so with eloquence and grace. If nonviolent resistance is a righteous strategy, this book is its holy writ!" - - Dr. William F. Shultz, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA
Rating: 
Summary: A Timely and Important Book
Review: Bravo! These two fine gentlemen are helping to bring nonviolent methods to solve conflict into the mainstream of thought and discussion. It wasn't too long ago that such ideas as national nonviolent resistance was left to "fringe" groups and people like Gene Sharp. This book compliments a number of more recent publications that are attempting to legitmize nonviolent methods and philosophy into the general cultural and international mainstream. With the spread of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction it behoves individuals and nations to adopt more sane and humane policies and actions that promote human rights, peace and social justice. Such things are pillars to the nonviolent methods and struggles of any century, especially the new one! As a Christian theologian and parent I have wrestled with the study and application of nonviolence in all dimensions of life. Two decades ago nonviolent solutions to international problems was considered nonsense and inconceivable. Now it is considered indepensible! We are all in the debt of these two gentlemen that wrote this book and that helped to give rise to the PBS series.
Rating:
Summary: Icing on the cause
Review: If your a social activists, and you sometimes feel that "progress" is a lost cause... READ THIS BOOK. If you are a political organizer, and it just doesn't seem worth it anymore... READ THIS BOOK. If you really believe in the power of Direct Action, but feel all used up and stale in your efforts... READ THIS BOOK. This is one of the few books available for people with leftisits, or humanist, causes that will make you smile and give you hope, and remind you that sometimes "the good fight" is a long one - but well worth it. It also takes one out of a self centered reality, and pays homage to those who have faught so hard before us. (and I am not talking about soldiers or fireman..)
Rating:
Summary: Icing on the cause
Review: If your a social activists, and you sometimes feel that "progress" is a lost cause... READ THIS BOOK. If you are a political organizer, and it just doesn't seem worth it anymore... READ THIS BOOK. If you really believe in the power of Direct Action, but feel all used up and stale in your efforts... READ THIS BOOK. This is one of the few books available for people with leftisits, or humanist, causes that will make you smile and give you hope, and remind you that sometimes "the good fight" is a long one - but well worth it. It also takes one out of a self centered reality, and pays homage to those who have faught so hard before us. (and I am not talking about soldiers or fireman..)
Rating:
Summary: Powerful and inspirational
Review: In many ways, these are bleak times. Global inequality widens....This book is an antidote. It tells us about the power of ordinary human actions and voices, even against the most seemingly overhwelming odds. It teaches us how change occurs, and the unexpected leaps that it takes. It reminds us of the power we have to act for justice. And it opens up new possibilities as to how we might resolve our conflicts without violence. Lots of times people shy away from the history of non-violence because they aren't principled pacifists. They would have fought in World War II or in our own Civil War, against slavery. That's fine. A Force More Powerful doesn't require that we take an absolute moral stand. Rather, it argues, with example after example, that non-violent action is more powerful and effective in a array of situations than violent resistant, even against autocrats and tyrants. The book frees up our imagination and gives us ways to act...
Rating:
Summary: Why did revenge dominate the 9-11 discussion in the US?
Review: Why did revenge and vengeance dominate the 9-11 discussion by public officials and the media? Why do our public discourse and media images seem virtually bereft of the common sense that informs many other areas of life? This outstanding book could help fill the void. It consists of a dozen very well-written and well-documented case studies of the power of nonviolence in dealing with injustice on a national or international scale. And I mean the power of nonviolence like King and Gandhi lived it, not the stereotype of nonviolence as passivity or cowardice. Good parents know revenge doesn't work with their children, good teachers know it doesn't work in the classroom, good citizens know it doesn't work in their community, and a growing proportion of the criminal justice world is embracing the vision of "restorative justice" as a much more functional grounding for most of their work. Even though the majority of people in the US know that revenge doesn't work, there is a lack of awareness of the power of nonviolence in the larger public arena, even though two thirds of the world's population has experienced nonviolent social change that was successful beyond anyone's wildest dreams in South Africa, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, Gandhi in India, the US civil rights movement, to name just a few case studies covered in this remarkable book. As someone who has taught and worked in community centers in the highest crime areas of NYC and Oakland and directed conflict and peace studies programs for 80 public schools, a university, and several community and national organizations, I can affirm that people are hungry for the hope that comes from stories of nonviolence in action.
Rating:
Summary: Why did revenge dominate the 9-11 discussion in the US?
Review: Why did revenge and vengeance dominate the 9-11 discussion by public officials and the media? Why do our public discourse and media images seem virtually bereft of the common sense that informs many other areas of life? This outstanding book could help fill the void. It consists of a dozen very well-written and well-documented case studies of the power of nonviolence in dealing with injustice on a national or international scale. And I mean the power of nonviolence like King and Gandhi lived it, not the stereotype of nonviolence as passivity or cowardice. Good parents know revenge doesn't work with their children, good teachers know it doesn't work in the classroom, good citizens know it doesn't work in their community, and a growing proportion of the criminal justice world is embracing the vision of "restorative justice" as a much more functional grounding for most of their work. Even though the majority of people in the US know that revenge doesn't work, there is a lack of awareness of the power of nonviolence in the larger public arena, even though two thirds of the world's population has experienced nonviolent social change that was successful beyond anyone's wildest dreams in South Africa, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, Gandhi in India, the US civil rights movement, to name just a few case studies covered in this remarkable book. As someone who has taught and worked in community centers in the highest crime areas of NYC and Oakland and directed conflict and peace studies programs for 80 public schools, a university, and several community and national organizations, I can affirm that people are hungry for the hope that comes from stories of nonviolence in action.
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