Nonviolence
  • Published: 1 January 2008
  • ISBN: 9780099494126
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

Nonviolence

The History of a Dangerous Idea

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Sep 2010
Paperback
1 Jan 2008
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A brilliant book by bestselling writer Mark Kurlansky on the place of pacifism in world history. An original work within the history of ideas genre, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama.

The conventional history of nations, even continents, is a history of warfare. According to this view, all the important ideas and significant changes of humankind occured as part of an effort to win one violent, bloody conflict or another.

But there have always been a few who refused to fight. Following the grand sweep of history from Confucius to Tolstoy, Erasmus to Gandhi, bestselling author Mark Kurlansky traces pacifism and its proponents to show how many modern ideas, a united Europe, the United Nations, and the abolition of slavery - originated in non-violence movements.
  • Published: 1 January 2008
  • ISBN: 9780099494126
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $29.99
Categories:

About the author

Mark Kurlansky

Mark Kurlansky is the bestselling author of several bestselling nonfiction titles including Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (winner of the Glenfiddich Best Food Book Award), The Basque History of the World, Salt: A World History, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World, a short story collection The White Man in the Tree and a novel, Boogaloo on 2nd Avenue.

portrait photo of Mark Kurlansky

Also by Mark Kurlansky

City Beasts
Ready for a Brand New Beat
Birdseye
Las Estrellas Orientales
The Last Fish Tale
The Eastern Stars
The Food of a Younger Land
See all

Praise for Nonviolence

Kurlansky writes history with his heart firmly on his sleeve, unashamedly hopeful that people are becoming more tired of war, quicker to condemn it

Adam Forrest, Sunday Herald

Short and punchy and has a good heart... fascinating, vibrant and thought-provoking

Scotland on Sunday

This is a magnificent achievement

Daily Telegraph

Succinct yet wide-ranging...Kurlansky is adamant that his book is about hope, that over and over again non-violence has had its own small successes, from Gandhi to Martin Luther King

Claire Allfree, Metro

Erudite and eloquent

Economist

The ideal Christmas present for world leaders and jihad warriors everywhere

Big Issue

This book is crammed with historical fact... thought provoking

Financial Times

Kurlansky tells an intriguing story - with some nuggets of fascinating trivia

Bill McSweeney, Irish Times

An entertaining, interesting and sometimes inspiring gallop through parts of the history of non-violent conflict

Buce Kent, History Today

Delightful

Irish Times
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