THE IDEA OF NONVIOLENCE

The attacks of September 11, 2001, and the United States response have 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, American Nonviolence: The History of an Idea. The book will appear in Fall 2004, published by Orbis Books.

Introduction

The Anabaptists

The Quakers

William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolitionists

Henry David Thoreau

Anarchism

World War I and the Rebirth of Nonviolence

Mahatma Gandhi

Reinhold Niebuhr

A. J. Muste

Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Barbara Deming

Thich Nhat Hanh

Bibliography