No-Protest

Professor Michael Nagler's book, "Is There No Other Way? The Search for a Nonviolent Future," was published before 9-11 but will surely come to be seen as a seminal work in understanding the causes of violence and the sorely-needed application of nonviolence -- which is not the same as pacifism.

For starters, let's get over the prevailing modern assumption that waging peace is somehow wimpy or unworkable. Prof. Nagler (UC Berkeley Emeritus) challenges us to really understand nonviolence, as Gandhi meant it to be employed. It is not "passive resistance." Neither is it nonviolence-unless-that-doesn't-work-and-then-we'll-go-back-to-being-violent-again. It is a morally-compelling, wondrously effective way of responding to violent force, not without its concommitant dangers, but then as Nagler says, "Nonviolence is dangerous, but not as dangerous as violence."

Would that everyone in the Middle East had a copy of this book; the only way to break the cycle of escalating violence is nonviolence. The marvel is that we now have a choice between the two modes of action. Countless, unsung heroes and heroines are carrying nonviolence forward into our new century, where it is probably the brightest ray of hope there is in an otherwise dark and gloomy forecast of a violent, militaristic, and authoritarian future, the foundations of which are already in place.

Since my novel about an adolescent would-be suicide is coming out this May, I was struck by Nagler's ideas about why, in a land of freedom and plenty, increasing numbers of adolescents, at increasingly younger ages, are feeling compelled to end their lives. While there are many layers to such a complex issue, one thing is obvious, says Nagler: "The reason a young person ends his or her life . . . is because life has lost its meaning for them -- they cannot imagine a future with any hope or purpose."

What's the tie-in between suicidal young people and our war-based world? I think bright, sensitive young people who have given up on life are the canaries in the gold mine. With everything in the world to live for, why are they choosing to check out? Could it be that the endless violence, trivialization and denigration of life all around them causes them to lose faith in the future -- or at least one they want to participate in?

This is where nonviolence comes in, as an alternative way of thinking and living. Nonviolence isn't just a negation of violence, it's an active embracing of peace in all its forms, a refusal to accept less than the bravest and best we can be. In short, it's a calling, to our highest aims as collective, collaborative, and cooperative human beings, an ideal young people desperately need in our time.

Though it seems we are presently sinking in a sea of negativity, there actually is more reason for hope now than at any other time in our history. I urge anyone interested in the future of the human race to read this book. Its principles may just be the saving of us.

THis is one of the best books I've ever read on nonviolence. It is very well-written and contains a good balance between nonviolence principles and Nagler's stories and personal anecdotes. Nagler well explains and illustrates nonviolence principles. His stories and examples are apt and useful. Nagler argues convincingly for both the principles and the efficacy of nonviolence in the world today. Most highly recommended, especially in the extreme levels of violence we live in today.

Drawing on years of research, personal experience and the anecdotal records of other peace workers, Michael Nagler has created a book that both seasoned peace workers and "newbies" to the field will learn much from. Reading this book, it becomes clear that there IS another way, and that in fact, that "way" has been around and WORKING over and over in many different circumstances and cultures. I love the combination of practical models (for example the three stages of nonviolent response) and stories woven together in an orderly pattern. In addition, Dr. Nagler makes it clear that nonviolence goes far beyond demonstrations and symbolic gestures. He tackles the difficult issue of suffering; the willingness of the person trying to change things to suffer rather than inflict suffering on others. There are stories here about nonviolence at work that move me deeply and show how transforming nonviolence can be for both the person acting nonviolently and their often violent oppressors. In addition to wonderful stories, there is practical, "put it into practice tomorrow" advice. I was deeply appreciative of Michael Nagler's analysis of the media and of advertising; his advice about this powerful force for violence in our culture is right on the money. Readers would do well to consider this advice seriously. Every once in awhile someone comes along and says or does something that shifts my paradigm-- makes me see possibilities where I saw none before, or helps me accept and understand where I had previously rejected and judged. This book tells story after story of people experiencing those paradigm shifts and transforming their behavior (and the world) in both large and small ways. If people began acting on the stories and advice that are in this book, I believe our culture could experience a real sea change -- a change for the better that would lead ultimately to a nonviolent future. This future is bright with possibilities and solutions to so many of the issues that plague us now and cast a shadow on how we currently see our future. Read this book. Share it with friends. Pass the message around. Get busy. Pay attention. As my Latin friends would say, "Nobis Est." It's up to us.

You get it all in this book! It won't matter if you agree or disagree on the issues that drive this book--you are involved from page one in the intricacies of a plot, counterplot, and subplots that will capture your attention from beginning to end.

The characters affect each other directly and indirectly as they work with and against each other in treachery, love, sex, religion, trust. Who can be trusted? When do you go with the heart instead of the head? How far will you go to get or keep a job?

You will enjoy the author's humor interwoven with the dark sides of human nature, and will recognize some thinly veiled real-life characters. One of my favorite parts is Brother Ralph's phone conversation with the president of the United States.... I daresay he DID treat him with every bit of respect he was due.... ;-)

The writing style reminds me of Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, Hannibal) as every sentence contributes to the story and the characters are well-developed and believable.

The author researched his subjects well; the story is believable, and may even cause you to think about your values.

I unreservedly recommend this book to any thinking adult.

As the author of this novel, I can guarrantee three things. If you can't stand the Clintons, and you love their liberal ideas, you NEED to read this book. If you have no opinion on their values, you will have when you finish reading it. And if you can't stand the Clintons and you despise their liberal political and social agenda, you will find this book one of the classics of the new millennium.

I think this book if almost life changing, I was a student of Dr. Willis' for four years and am now a friend of his. Dr. Willis presents you a great history of theology as well as philosophy, and makes you ask "big" questions. Though he presents the answer of trinitarian theology to you, you definitely have room to wonder. Get this book.

Dr. Willis has written an exhaustive, interesting, and accurate look at the doctrine of the Trinity as it relates to Atheism and Theism.

Thank you!

The events in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention vividly displayed the social divisions and conflicts of the Sixties. Thus it's an event that can serve as an entryway into understanding the period.

No one book can do justice to Chicago '68, but this one comes the closest. John Schultz takes you inside the International Amphitheatre where the convention was taking place as well as into the parks and onto the streets where the protests were. He captures the nightly confrontations at curfew time in Lincoln Park with cinematic clarity. Schultz's narrative sticks close to the street action, close to the acts of demonstrators, rather than the activities of the soon-to-be-famous so-called leaders. Read this to sense the full-bodied flavor of Convention Week 1968.

Lots of books on the Sixties are steeped in nostalgia and never cut through the foggy mists of time. This one is the original article, it will show you what it was to be there.

These days, it seems like every two-bit charlatan with a piece of paper from Holeinthewall Junior College is spitting out a volume of drivel on this or that part of the late 19th century. No subject is more infested with these barely literate confidence men than Civil War & antebellum pacifism. Indeed, make barely a mention of Alexander Campbell or J.W. McGarvey on any campus in the country and you'll be swarmed by adjunct-professorial snake oil salesman in smoking jackets, peddling their intellecutally dubious wares.

Well, gentleman, let's just say that there's a new sheriff in town, and it's time to come correct or face the consequences. His name is Thomas F. Curran, and he is not here to play games; rather, he is here to give the most thorough treatment of the Restoration movement yet produced. Stunningly well researched, yet presented in a thoughtful, cogent, and above all interesting way, Curran has acheived a Taoist balance in this volume that most academics couldn't dream of if you gave them a magic lamp with an extra genie thrown in.

Move over, Messrs. De Groot, Murch, and West, this genre's pantheon just got a little bigger.

Mr. Mandel's book, "Saying No to Power" serves primarily as an apology and justification for 20th century's second most oppressive dictatorship - the Soviet Union. The author is a well-known Soviet sympathizer and apologist, and has been one throughout his life.Saying no to power? Not quite, Mr. Mandel is in fact saying yes to Soviet power.

....

Its a very interesting life story in any case. William Mandel grew up in a milieu which is long gone: a highly literate, politically active, urban working class. He spent a significant part of his childhood in the Soviet Union; was deeply, though ambivalently, involved in the Communist Party U.S.A(CPUSA) - (he was kicked out and then readmitted, at which point he resigned); He was interrogated twice by HUAC, as well as by Roy Cohn during the McCarthy hearings; He was the victim of red-baiting through-out his career; He was involved in the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley; he is a principle actor in the current Pacifica Radio fracas.

Along the way William Mandel has encountered a huge number of characters, ranging from Eleanor Roosevelt, to Paul Robeson, to Jerry Rubin. His political outlook has changed from Marxist-Leninism to his current disavowal of Socialism.

He is such an acclaimed scholar of the late Soviet Union that he was, for a time, a member of the Hoover Institute, a bastion of right-wing American triumphalism.

In short, William Mandel has led an exciting life. His autobiography should be an exciting read.

Sadly - it ain't so. Outside of the first few chapters about his boyhood, which are charming, this book is a chore. Mr. Mandel appears distraught that his contributions to the history of the American Left have been under-appreciated and is therefore concerned with setting the record straight. There are more references to personal correspondence extolling Mr. Mandel's impact on the world then there are to Mandel’s own writings!

Fascinating questions are left unanswered. He infers that he has given up on Marxian Socialism since it has proved to be as utopian as the 19th Century socialisms that it sought to replace. He suggests that civil libertarian concerns gnawed at him while he was a practicing Communist. But he never presents a critique of Marxism. Given that this is a relatively recent intellectual development for Mr. Mandel, one would expect some substance in this regard.

There are also the odd omissions and tantalizing facts that are not followed through upon. William Mandel offers a seemingly cogent case for the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact: tying together Stalin's desire for a secure western border with the incursion into Finland. Mandel seeks to make us understand that this pact was primarily a vehicle for the defense of the Soviet Union against a set of hostile and intractable enemies. trange...there is no mention of the invasion and division of Poland.

As for tantalizing facts, there is one point where William Mandel mentions a recent CPUSA convention wherein the Commies called the Cops! Apparently there was a group of dissidents who were attempting to participate, and the Cleveland Police Department was called upon to enforce Party Disciplne. But this incident is not expanded upon. (This is, in fact not merely an offhand anecdote. The CPUSA subsequently split into two groups: one of which expounds Social Democracy ala Western Europe – and which has left the Party, the other is a bunch of aging ideologues. This has spelled the end of the CPUSA as a viable force, even in left-sectarian terms. Given the sturm and drang that followed the CPUSA throughout its history, and inspired Mandel’s most courageous moments – indeed, given the force that the CPUSA had in Mandel’s personal life, from childhood forward, one would think that the Party’s demise is worthy of comment.

Perhaps William Mandel could author a follow-up volume which details and analyzes the history of the American Left in the 20th Century. He would be in a unique position to do so, and it would be an exciting and entertaining book.

Bottom line: if you're building a library on the American Left, get this book for the sake of completeness.

Otherwise look for William Mandel's other works on the Soviet Union. I note that there is a new one due in July.

This is a profoundly sad book that encapsulates the intellectual tragedy of our times and as such, is illuminating, though not in the manner its author and his supporters would prefer. Mandel's was perhaps the loudest and most articulate voice serving, in effect, as a propoganda arm of the Soviet Union through decade after decade when the extraordinary brutality of Stalinist dictatorship devoured its own children and created unparalleled police states in Eastern Europe and around the world. Mandel never seemed to realize that the Soviet Union of his dreams was one vast Potemkin village barely masking an unending daily terror. The enormous irony of Mandel hysterically proclaiming his civil liberties before HUAC is apparently lost on both himself and those fellow communists who for some odd reason always want to drape themselves with the grand banners of "fighter for world peace and justice." But no apologist for state fascism could ever publish a self aggrandizing book in America entitled "Saying No to Power" merely for their vigorous assertion of their own first amendment rights to praise dictatorships and deride the one nation on earth whose commitment to freedom of speech has been made foundational. Very very few passionate counterpart activists for freedom and justice within the former Soviet Union ever lived through the Gulags (or even through the basement of that ghastly tower on Dzerzhinsky Square). Commisars Yagoda, Yeskov, and Beria failed to provide microphones, news cameras, and printing presses to the dissidents of the Soviet Union, although for five decades the inhuman screams from the interrogation rooms hardly needed amplification. They were, of course, never heard as far as Mandel's Berkeley. No to power? George Orwell is smiling even now.