Summary
Nonviolence joins Nicholson Bakers new book, Human Smoke, a compilation of contemporary newspaper articles, letters, and journals designed to demonstrate that "the Good War"-in which civilians were targeted by Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt, as well as by Hitler and Tojo-was nothing of the kind. "The greatest generation" was as destructive as any other, in Bakers view. Baker includes voices that did not buy into the dominant ethos of brutal domination, reinforcing another of [Mark Kurlansky] s lessons: "The hard work of beginning a movement to end war has already been done."
Nonviolence is most striking when it recounts the largely forgotten history of dissenters from the governing creed of bellicosity-including men who flocked to monasteries as havens from conscription as Christian soldiers. Kurlansky recounts the grim fate of the 13th-century Cathars, vegetarian Christians who opposed church authority in southern France. He argues that if the Cathars had not finally taken up arms in self-defense, Crusaders might not have exterminated the entire community. "The lesson," Kurlansky says, "is that if the nonviolent side can be led to violence, they have lost the argument and they are destroyed."Founded in violence, the young republic was also home to peace activists such as David Low Dodge, Noah Worcester, and Charles K. Whipple. Though Abolitionist leaders William Lloyd Garrison and Lydia Maria Child embraced nonviolence, they were unable to halt the rush toward Civil War. "Was this bloodbath necessary to free the slaves?" Kurlansky asks, rhetorically. He analyzes the Spanish American War as an example of imperialist aggression, and World War II as the inevitable consequence of World War I. ("Violence does not resolve," Kurlansky contends. "It always leads to more violence.") He celebrates conscientious objection even when the price has been incarceration, and credits Christian pacifist (and author of 1940's Nonviolence in an Aggressive World) AJ. Muste as a godfather of nonviolent activism during the civil rights and nuclear disarmament movements.See the full content of this document
Extract
Giving Peace a Chance
Giving Peace a Chance BY STEVEN G. KELLMAN Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea By Mark Kurlansky Modern Library 224 pages, $14
For their 1968 book The Lessons of History, Will and Ariel Durant calculated that the world had been without war for only 268 of the previous 3,421 years. Four decades later, we seem less likely than ever to reach 269. "Once you start the business of killing, you just get 'deeper and...See the full content of this document
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