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Title: The Power of Nonviolence : Writings by Advocates of Peace by Howard Zinn ISBN: 0-8070-1407-9 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: selections disappoint
Comment: I was tempted to chime in after reading a previous review that commended the author for his selections. I read the book and had the exact opposite reaction.
Perhaps I'm getting more conservative as I get older, but if this collection is the best representative writing from the defenders of "peace".. sorry, but I'm very worried.
Most of the selections (esp. the ones by Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi etc.) are not their best pieces. They are either rambling or too short, and do not defend their positions adequately. In particular, they leave open the questions of "when is use of force justified?" and "how can one respond to a corrupt/despotic ruler that insists upon killing his/her opponents?" Personally, I think the author has hastily cobbled together writings from these "famous" writers, rather than actually examining/reading other pieces to cull the best defense. Granted, these writers are distinguished by their prodigious output, and selecting their best writings on peace is no easy task, but that's what I was expecting that Howard had done when we scanned and picked this book for our book club.
I was disappointed.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Primer for Activists and Students
Comment: Why is the first impulse of American government to use force? Is there another way? In this resounding, influential anthology, the answer is an emphatic 'Yes!' Beginning in the sixth century before Christ the book starts with the compassionate teachings of Buddha and works its way through the history of American wars to our current conflict with Afghanistan. The historical sweep of the book -with essays by William Penn, Jane Addams, Dorothy Day, Emerson, and others- provides a solid base of understanding that nonviolence is not the refuge of the hippy or peace-nik, but has been a vibrant, evolving, and changing alternative to war for nearly 2,600 years.
Everything you would expect in an anthology of peace writing is here: Gandhi, Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," Thich Nhat Hanh and Daniel Berrigan, et al, but what makes this volume so rewarding is the editor's savvy selections which you may not know as well but are just as important to the nonviolence movement. Beacon Press went and found Martin Luther King's crucial speech at the Riverside Church in NY when, against the advice of many of his supporters, he spoke out gallantly against the Viet Nam War. The other less known pieces -Henry Wallace's appeal to Harry S. Truman, Japanese pacifist Daisaku Ikeda's conversation with Linus Pauling, anti-racism activist Tim Wise (well known, perhaps, only to znet readers) offers a sardonic, yet unflinching look at our current war in Afghanistan, and in what can only be described as a gift to readers, Beacon has included Albert Camus' little read, but mind-bogglingly important "Neither Victims, nor Executioners"- are all rewarding, nourishing, and, to this reader at least, helped to provide a historical understanding of pacifism and rejection of war as the only option for humanity.
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Title: The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People by Jonathan Schell ISBN: 0805044566 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict by Peter Ackerman, Jack Duvall ISBN: 0312240503 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: I'd Rather Teach Peace by Colman McCarthy ISBN: 1570754306 Publisher: Orbis Books Pub. Date: April, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Peace Is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation by Walter Wink, Fellowship of Reconciliation (U.S.), Richard Deats ISBN: 1570753156 Publisher: Orbis Books Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: Is There No Other Way?: The Search for a Nonviolent Future by Michael N. Nagler ISBN: 1893163164 Publisher: Berkeley Hills Books Pub. Date: 15 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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