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Is There No Other Way? The Search for a Nonviolent Future Is There No Other Way? is the mature work of one of the world's most widely respected peace scholars and activists. After three decades of articles, conferences and on-the-line involvement, Dr. Nagler turns his attention to a broader audience, demonstrating in a moving and accessible narrative the profound and startling laws that the nonviolence movement has discovered in the last century. Beginning with the achievements of Mahatma Gandhi, and following the legacy of nonviolence through the struggles against Nazism in Europe, racism in America, oppression in China and Latin America, and ethnic conflicts in Africa and Bosnia, Nagler unveils a hidden history. Nonviolence, he proposes, has proven its power against arms and social injustice wherever it has been correctly understood and applied. Nagler dissects recent events such as Kosovo and Tienanmen Square to show how nonviolence operates and why it has sometimes failed. He also draws upon lesser-known actions such as the "Prague Spring," and the women's demonstration at Berlin's Rosenstrasse, to reveal the principles by which nonviolence has turned the tides against mass conflict. He then explores these same principles in the context of the growing violence of American society. Nagler's approach is not only historical, but also spiritual. He argues, drawing upon the experience of Gandhi and other activists, that the shift to nonviolence begins within the individual, through the reshaping and re-visioning of how one understands the world. He then shows how from changes in the individual, changes in the larger community follow. Is There No Other Way? is a provocative and emotionally powerful document that challenges readers' assumptions about the workings of power in their homes and communities, as well as the larger political arena. "Nonviolence often seems the tactic of the naive idealist. As Michael Nagler shows, it may really be the strategy of the shrewd and practical among us, who have to figure out some better way than the carnage of the last century for dealing with our problems. This is a vital book for us as individuals, as communities and nations, maybe even as a species." --Bill McKibben, author of The Hard Work of Simple Living "Michael Nagler's Is There No Other Way? shows that nonviolence is more than a pretty slogan; it is a philosophy of life capable of giving direction and pointing the way toward societal healing. Every political leader and every teacher should be required to read this book." --Rabbi Michael Lerner,
author of Spirit Matters: "With Is There No Other Way? Michael Nagler poses the question that rises in all our hearts with every evening's newscast and every morning's headlines, but unlike most of us he pushes on for real answers. In doing so he argues convincingly that Gandhi's 'science of nonviolence' is the real and practical alternative we are looking for." -Carol Lee
Flinders, author of At the Root of This Longing: Berkeley Hills Books |
Michael N. Nagler Michael N. Nagler is a widely published scholar in the fields of Peace Studies and ancient Indian scripture. Professor Emeritus of Classical Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, he is currently chairperson of the U.C. Peace and Conflict Studies program. He is the editor of Metta: A Journal of Nonviolence and the author of America Without Violence (1982). He is also the author of the introductions to Mahatma Gandhi's Book of Prayers, The Way to God, Vows and Remembrances, The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi and Prayer published by Berkeley Hills Books. He lives in Petaluma, California.
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