“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.” (full
review)
Midwest
Book Review
“This
book is a masterpiece. Its content is going to be very useful not
only to those who study nonviolent struggle but also to those in
need, nonviolent activists of pro-democratic movements in the
world's great battlefields.
“With
Waging Nonviolent Struggle, Dr. Gene Sharp adds a new page in
his brilliant biography, making a huge step towards a practical
approach to strategic
nonviolent struggle. As a practitioner, trainer and consultant, I am
once again proud that I had the opportunity to learn from Gene, and
transfer his precious knowledge worldwide.”
Srdja
Popovic, Co-founder
Serbian democracy movement
Otpor
“Gene
Sharp is one of the most imaginative strategic thinkers of our time.
His life career, devoted to the development of concepts involved in
nonviolent struggle, has made enormous strides in alerting world
policy makers to the possibilities and risks of the phenomena. In
arenas from the U.S. Army War College to defense and foreign
ministries around the world, he has persuasively lectured, argued,
and explained his views. Waging Nonviolent Struggle is
in many ways a capstone to his mountainous works: comprehensive,
readable and rationally presented. This volume will inform the
skeptical and entice those capable of thinking beyond the box. We
are all the richer for its publication.”
Major
General Edward B. Atkeson, U.S. Army (Ret.), PhD
Senior Fellow,
Institute of Land Warfare
Association of the U.S. Army
“Waging
Nonviolent Struggle
is a powerful encyclopedia of major campaigns that adhere to the
philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. This book should be used
as a major text for those individuals, groups, and even nations that
aspire to the way of nonviolence.”
U.S.
Congressman
John Lewis
“For
more than thirty years, Gene Sharp has been in the top rank
of the world’s scholars of nonviolence—
researching, investigating, cataloguing, classifying, and reflecting
upon the nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century. In Waging
Nonviolent Struggle he has distilled much of what he has
learned, in the form of case histories, practical advice, and
reflection, to produce a work of the greatest value.”
Jonathan Schell,
Peace & Disarmament Correspondent
The Nation
“Waging
Nonviolent Struggle
is a must-read book for policymakers and practitioners who in
the aftermath of the peaceful democratic revolutions in Ukraine and
Georgia are finally asking 'How did it happen?' As Dr. Sharp reminds us throughout, conducting effective
nonviolent struggle is not magic, it is the result of careful planning
and strategic thinking.
He takes us through the essential elements of nonviolent
struggle and strategy, illustrated by a number of case studies—some familiar, others never analyzed before.
“While
no struggle is the same, and there is no simple formula for success,
Dr. Sharp convincingly argues that movements achieve their
objectives when they are grounded in a clear-headed assessment of
the existing allocation of power in a society, and a strategic,
disciplined use of a set of tactics and actions that effectively
shifts that power away from those who hold it towards the unarmed
movement pushing for change. This book builds upon and expands his earlier work.”
Jennifer Windsor, Executive
Director
Freedom
House
“.
. . a remarkably timely book. . . . Sharp makes it clear that
strategic nonviolence is a critical tool in the waging of today's
struggles, from dismantling dictatorships and blocking coups d’état
to defense against foreign aggression. . . . Every social activist
should have a copy! To say nothing of every scholar in the fields of
conflict resolution and social change. Theory and practice are
well-matched.”
(full
review) Elise
Boulding Professor
Emeritus of Sociology, Dartmouth College Former
Secretary General, International Peace Research Association
in Peacework
Magazine, May 2005
“Waging
Nonviolent Struggle is an indispensable work. It is an
up-to-date guide and a gateway to other valuable resources. Clear
organization (and a detailed index) make this book
"consultable" as well as readable, and at $14.95 it is
very reasonably priced. When it comes to nonviolent struggle, Sharp
does not have all the answers; but you can find more of them by
starting with his writings than any other way I know.
“Waging Nonviolent Struggle brings together, in comparatively compact form, many
of the arguments and analyses from the vast corpus of Sharp's
decades of research. The reader new to Sharp's work will find the
gist of it here, with adequate detail, but also guidance for how to
pursue many topics in greater depth. Those who have read one or more
of Sharp's previous books and feel familiar with his approach will
find here no mere restatement, but instead a provocative program for
world social improvement enriched by new historical experience and
analysis.” (full
review)
Robert
A. Irwin, MIT
Program
in Writing and Humanistic Studies
in
Peacework
Magazine, May 2005
“Unlike
most academics, Sharp is a practitioner as well as a writer, having
considerable courage to roll his sleeves up and get his hands dirty
at the political sharp end, in Latvia in 1991 and particularly in
Tiananmen Square in 1989.”
Jeremy
Jones
Research
Fellow, Belfer Center,
Harvard University
Senior
Research Associate, Oxford
Centre for Islamic Studies
in
Harvard
International Review,
Summer 2005
“Too many people
who speak about Sharp's work are unaware of its sophistication and
practicality. Promoting Sharp's work can inform public discourse,
help the centuries-long effort to understand the concept of
nonviolence, and assist programs in peace and conflict studies
around the world. With the new book, Waging Nonviolent
Struggle, readers have another opportunity to recognize and
to appreciate Sharp's achievement.”
(full
review)
Michael
True
Emeritus
Professor of English, Assumption
College
in
Peacework
Magazine, May 2005
“An intriguing book, which will
repay study from multiple perspectives . . . as a strategic text, it
presents a rich array of ideas well worth serious consideration and
further development, from an activist as well as a scholarly or even
a professional-strategic viewpoint.”
James
F. Keeley,
Ph.D
Professor,
University of Calgary
in
Journal
of Military and Strategic Studies,
Fall
2005
“Gene
Sharp has done more to advance our understanding and practice of
strategic nonviolence than anyone except 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 social and political theory, but also
includes a practical guide to strategic planning for activists.” (full
review)
Lester
R. Kurtz, Professor
Department
of Sociology, U. of Texas-Austin
in
Ahimsa Nonviolence
Vol.
1, No. 2, March-April 2005
“Since
the early 1970s, former Harvard professor Gene Sharp has been the
most influential figure among those who study nonviolence as
practices of social struggle. . . . [Waging Nonviolent Struggle] is
a significant work. It is a good one-volume primer on
nonviolence-theory (minus discussion of spiritual resources and
practices) for classes and for activist groups. I recommend it
highly.”
(full review)
Michael
L. Westmoreland-White, Ph.D.
Research
Associate, Fuller Theological Seminary Extension
Adjunct Professor of
Religion and Philosophy, Spalding University
for www.ecapc.org,
6/4/05
“Gene
Sharp has outdone himself. For thirty years he has been the
pre-eminent scholar showing societies how to get rid of oppressive
rulers. No one else—at least since Gandhi—has been such a
brilliant strategist of nonviolent resistance.”
John
Bacher, a Toronto writer
and activist,
in Peace Magazine, Jul-Sep
2005
“For
the student of nonviolence, this is a mandatory volume, full of
stories and theory, tactics and political exegesis. Sharp knows his
material more thoroughly than anyone, and he has recruited the best
colleagues.”
[full review]
Tom
H. Hastings, professor
Portland
State University
in The
Peaceworker
“Insightful,
practical and inspiring—a
must read for those working for a culture of peace.”
[full
review]
Tony
Dominski
for Culture
of Peace News Network, February
2006
“[A]
strong argument for moving away from the practices of the twentieth
century, a century that witnessed state sanctioned violence on an
unprecedented scale, to devising strategies that solve problems in a
nonviolent manner. This book is a `must read,' not only
for social studies teachers, but also for government leaders and
policy makers alike .”
Robert
L. Stevens , Chair
Dept.
of Curriculum and Instruction
University
of Texas at Tyler
in Social
Education, October 1, 2005
“This
is a book of great value and, because
of its pragmatic approach, can reach out to and convince a wider
audience of the efficacy of nonviolent struggle and the need for it
in the "battles" of the 21st century.”
(full review)
Carol
Rank
Senior
Lecturer, Center
for Peace and Reconciliation Studies
Coventry
University,
England
in The
Nonviolent Activist,
November-December 2005
“Masterful
. . . a useful addition to courses [with] a philosophical or
theological focus, as well as serving as a practical bible for the next generation of
nonviolent activists.”
(full review)
John
E. Cort,
“Classic”
"I'm recommending Gene Sharp's Waging
Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century
Potential. (The title really sounds like a tome gathering dust
from college days, one you'd never actually READ—but
in fact it's an encyclopedia of helpfulness from the preeminent
secular theorist of nonviolence.) From our neighborhoods and
communities to Capitol Hill, to the U.N., to the Middle East, to
Central Africa, we newly empowered American citizens are now engaged
in shaping a future of hope for our country and our world. Strategic
planning is politics—and
I would submit that progressive politics is strategic planning for
nonviolent conflict. Have at it!"
Mimi
Kennedy, Chair
Progressive
Democrats of America
in
The
Huffington Post, November
19, 2006
"An
important read for academics and activists . . . will help any group
wanting to engage in nonviolent action,"
Tisa
M. Anders, PhD.
in
International Journal on World
Peace, March
2007
Other
Extending Horizons books by Gene Sharp The
Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 parts) Part
One: Power and Struggle Part
Two: The Methods of Nonviolent Action Part
Three: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action Gandhi
as a Political Strategist Social
Power and Political Freedom Other
Gene Sharp titles at the Albert Einstein Institution
Extending Horizons Books •
Porter Sargent Publishers, Inc.
400 Bedford
St., Suite SW03, Manchester, NH 03101, USA
Tel:
603-669-7032 (Worldwide)
Fax:
603-669-7945 •
E-mail: larry@flyleafpublishing.com
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