AMERICAN NONVIOLENCE:

THE HISTORY OF AN IDEA

The attacks of September 11, 2001, and the United States response pushed the spiral of violence ever higher. Nonviolent responses are possible. It is now more important than ever to consider nonviolent alternatives. Nonviolence means much more than just passively "turning the other cheek." It means finding active, positive, creative ways to live. There is a rich intellectual heritage of nonviolence, and a great deal of that heritage has originated here in the United States. To promote awareness of that heritage and efforts to enrich it, I have written an introductory book on the history of the idea of nonviolence in the United States. American Nonviolence: The History of An Idea is now available from Orbis Books.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

The Anabaptists

The Quakers

William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolitionists

Henry David Thoreau

The Anarchists

World War I: The Crucial Turning Point

Mahatma Gandhi

Reinhold Niebuhr

A. J. Muste

Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Barbara Deming

Thich Nhat Hanh

Conclusion

Bibliography