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The Power of Nonviolence
The Power of Nonviolence, written by Richard Bartlett Gregg in 1934 and revised in 1944 and 1959, is the most important and influential theory of principled or integral nonviolence published in the twentieth century. Drawing on Gandhi's ideas and practice, Gregg explains in detail how the organized power of nonviolence (power-with) exercised against violent opponents can bring about small and large transformative social change and provide an effective substitute for war. This edition includes a major introduction by political theorist, James Tully, situating the text in its contexts from 1934 to 1959, and showing its great relevance today. The text is the definitive 1959 edition with a foreword by Martin Luther King, Jr. It includes forewords from earlier editions, the chapter on class struggle and nonviolent resistance from 1934, a crucial excerpt from a 1929 preliminary study, a biography and bibliography of Gregg, and a bibliography of recent work on nonviolence.
306 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 19, 2019
This is a great starting place for people looking to learn about non-violence. I learned a lot and would recommend this book to others.
October 23, 2021
The queston is often asked: 'What can I do right now to promote peace?' Richard Gregg's answer: "The only way to improve the future is to improve the present by using a sound method, and keep on applying that method day after day." (p.198) He provides a thorough account of what that method of nonviolent persuasion looks like, a method that will "by its application, bring about a more just, finer and happier world." In sum, your questions about how to strengthen the peace movement are answered herein.
The book deserves a wider readership.
As to the editor's introduction (or the summary he provides of it in his later 2016 lecture based on the same, delivered at Colorado College), the crux of the matter is that the movement went astray, in the last quarter of the 20th century: "when most people think of nonviolence [since the rise of technique-based instrumental tactics with Gene Sharp and others since the 1970s] they think of episodic techniques of nonviolent resistance (or direct action) to strike, boycott, non-cooperate, protest, and so on, to overthrow an unjust power-holder, to change a law, to force opponents to the negotiating table, and so on [rather than] a much larger ground or permaculture of nonviolent power relations that provide the basis and animacy of these techniques." (2016 lecture, p.7--emphasis added, in italics) By introducing the idea of permaculture as a metaphor for what's needed, Tully suggests that people could benefit from an important corrective, by a return to the sources of inspiration for the nonviolent life, that always intended a much larger project of "gradual, intergenerational transformation" (2016 lecture, p.13). Hence, the importance of Gregg's book, especially the long chapter on "Persuasion", added in the 1944 edition, and included in all editions published since.
Or, as Tully puts it in the introduction, there is a major distinction drawn by Gandhi between satyagraha and what he called duragraha, the latter term meaning unethical civil resistance (intro, p.xlv; or, being disposed to enmity, p.xxxviii), which only serves to reproduce the dominant, destructive, or oppressive assumptions and attitudes, in the long run. That is, there is no "quick fix", and we should therefore be sceptical of those pretending to offer simplistic solutions or formulas. The problem is a master/slave dialectic, a kind of either/or: "With duragraha, individuals and groups allow the emotional propulsion of fear and anger to disconnect, alienate themselves from, and override the background relationships of mutual trust, define themselves as separate, and evince an aggressive or submissive attitude of distrust and enmity towards others." (intro, pp.xxxviii-xxxix--emphasis added, in italics) In order to avoid the self-defeating "often involuntary movement" (p.xxxix) of duragraha, the peace movement should go "back to the sources" and try updating the original insights, like those provided by Richard Gregg, to make them more psychologically real for the situation today. By delving into and developing its own ethos , the peace movement would be better able to engage effectively not only with given opponents, but more generally with the more widespread problem of a sick—if not psychotic—civilization, one that threatens to force us all into a corner, or lead us into a dead end, current trends leading either "to extermination by war or civilizational collapse." (intro, p.xxxix)
Available online, a PDF of Tully's March 1st, 2016 lecture: https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/po...
The book deserves a wider readership.
As to the editor's introduction (or the summary he provides of it in his later 2016 lecture based on the same, delivered at Colorado College), the crux of the matter is that the movement went astray, in the last quarter of the 20th century: "when most people think of nonviolence [since the rise of technique-based instrumental tactics with Gene Sharp and others since the 1970s] they think of episodic techniques of nonviolent resistance (or direct action) to strike, boycott, non-cooperate, protest, and so on, to overthrow an unjust power-holder, to change a law, to force opponents to the negotiating table, and so on [rather than] a much larger ground or permaculture of nonviolent power relations that provide the basis and animacy of these techniques." (2016 lecture, p.7--emphasis added, in italics) By introducing the idea of permaculture as a metaphor for what's needed, Tully suggests that people could benefit from an important corrective, by a return to the sources of inspiration for the nonviolent life, that always intended a much larger project of "gradual, intergenerational transformation" (2016 lecture, p.13). Hence, the importance of Gregg's book, especially the long chapter on "Persuasion", added in the 1944 edition, and included in all editions published since.
Or, as Tully puts it in the introduction, there is a major distinction drawn by Gandhi between satyagraha and what he called duragraha, the latter term meaning unethical civil resistance (intro, p.xlv; or, being disposed to enmity, p.xxxviii), which only serves to reproduce the dominant, destructive, or oppressive assumptions and attitudes, in the long run. That is, there is no "quick fix", and we should therefore be sceptical of those pretending to offer simplistic solutions or formulas. The problem is a master/slave dialectic, a kind of either/or: "With duragraha, individuals and groups allow the emotional propulsion of fear and anger to disconnect, alienate themselves from, and override the background relationships of mutual trust, define themselves as separate, and evince an aggressive or submissive attitude of distrust and enmity towards others." (intro, pp.xxxviii-xxxix--emphasis added, in italics) In order to avoid the self-defeating "often involuntary movement" (p.xxxix) of duragraha, the peace movement should go "back to the sources" and try updating the original insights, like those provided by Richard Gregg, to make them more psychologically real for the situation today. By delving into and developing its own ethos , the peace movement would be better able to engage effectively not only with given opponents, but more generally with the more widespread problem of a sick—if not psychotic—civilization, one that threatens to force us all into a corner, or lead us into a dead end, current trends leading either "to extermination by war or civilizational collapse." (intro, p.xxxix)
Available online, a PDF of Tully's March 1st, 2016 lecture: https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/po...
June 27, 2024
I first discovered this book when it was referenced on Khan Academy, in the YouTube video 'Nonviolence and Peace Movements: Crash Course World History 228' uploaded by the channel CrashCourse, in the article 'WATCH: Nonviolence and Peace Movements', in Unit 7, in the course 'World History Project - Origins to the Present'. In the video, the narrator, John Green, states that the author, who when he was young had been involved in the anti-war movement in the United States, traveled to India in 1925. He then spent four (4) years studying with Mohandas Gandhi including seven (7) months living at Gandhi's ashram in Gujarat. Then, when he returned to the United States, he wrote this book, which became very influential, and in which he described how non-violence would remake the world.
January 15, 2023
I was hopeful but could not finish this. Huge clouds of totally convinced conjecture. Give me better case studies and interviews instead of Gregg’s Thoughts. Small thing, I believe, to ask when you’re suggesting people offer their skulls for caving in over the course of what takes, in some cases, decades or more.
I’d have to be a monster to rate it one star, right?
I’d have to be a monster to rate it one star, right?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews