The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace

The book is exactly what the title proclaims, a great collection of Writings by Advocates of Peace. It's a nice reminder that there are people in the world that think outside the box and have clear and sane thoughts.

Reading through the writings of the included authors, you learn that their message is truly -timeless- and is just as relevent today as it was then. This compilation truly brought to my attention that history repeats itself, especially if we allow the same force of violence to repeat itself.

This book offers good food for thought about the issues facing our world today. Even though there are works that were omitted, the ideas presented here are very worth reading.

I must admit that I am a bit surprised that this has received two poor reviews in a row. A quick look at the original book shows that The Power of Nonviolence was a true revision of the 60's book. The previous volume, with over 100 selections, was a haphazard affair with so many pieces that you got lost trying to keep the thread of the argument. I think that Professor Zinn should be commended for cutting out a lot of dead wood from the old book. It is curious that previous reviews have pointed out the selections because as I compared the two books I noticed that many of the selections picked out as poor choices were, in fact, part of the original volume carried over to The Power of Nonviolence. I think the selection are top notch...I mean who really has heard of Tim Wise other than in this anthology? Which brings me to my last point: That it is the easiest criticism of any anthology to critique what it left out. By definition, an anthology should be judged by what is actually included...or so it seems to me. As a first step toward the study of nonviolence, it should be read and considered a success.

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.