A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict

In this tour de force the authors tell how popular movements have used nonviolent weapons to overthrow dictators, obstruct military invaders, and secure human rights in country after country over the past century.

A gripping narrative of far-flung locations and history-changing crises, this book depicts how nonviolent sanctions - such as noncooperation, strikes, boycotts, and civil disobedience - can separate brutal regimes from their means of control. It reveals the inside stories of how ordinary people took extraordinary action to end oppression - including the Danes' valiant resistance to the Nazis, Solidarity's defeat of the Polish communism, and civic action in Chile to remove a military dictator - and how nonviolent power continues to change the world today, from Burma to the Balkans

This book is filled with dramatic portraits of compelling individuals - such as Mohandas Gandhi, Lech Walesa, the young African Americans who sparked the civil rights revolution and the mothers of the disappeared in Argentina. At a time when violent force is all too often chosen as the means of conflict, this book meets a crucial need - by showing how people can achieve freedom and justice without using violence.

Also see the companion video documentary of the same title.