Abstract
When you start a research project in a new area and face the daunting task of learning about the related literature, you wish you could magically conjure up a recently published book or annual review article that would explain existing scholarship in an authoritative and understandable fashion. It would save so much time if someone could orient you to the field, pointing out the contours and shining a light on unexplored corners. How rare it is to find such an expert or text! Luckily for anyone embarking on the study of nonviolent collective action, Sharon Erickson Nepstad has written the comprehensive and engaging Nonviolent Struggle: Theories, Strategies, and Dynamics, which sets out to help others “quickly get up to speed” (p. xiv) on this growing area of scholarship. As a sociologist who has years of work on nonviolence, including books on nonviolent revolution, Central American solidarity activism, and the Plowshares movement, as well as recent publications on the Arab Spring, Nepstad knows the literature well. Her book is a service to readers in this important and newly visible area of scholarship and will be particularly useful for advanced undergraduate or graduate classes in peace and conflict studies or social movements.
The timing is right for this volume because the study of nonviolent protest has mushroomed over the last 25 years. Nepstad’s book is the first to survey and evaluate the field, setting out the philosophical and strategic foundations for nonviolence as well as the varied types of action that fall under the umbrella of nonviolence, its dynamics and consequences, and future directions for research. The text also provides additional resources that instructors and students will welcome: a full glossary that supplements the clear and systematic definition of terms within the book, discussion questions, both endnotes and a bibliography, and numerous helpful charts and figures. That said, the book’s one downside is a listing tendency that leads to repetition, especially where there are charts and figures—something students are likely to complain about in class.
Nevertheless, readers will also appreciate Nepstad’s clear and concise presentation of the interdisciplinary foundations of nonviolence. After defining what is meant by nonviolence, she provides a background overview from the major world religions as well as a primer on the Gandhian philosophy of satyagraha (“truth force”) that inspired the nonviolent collective action that won India independence. Nepstad summarizes the development of this philosophy and the resulting strategy of “principled nonviolence,” situating it in the period from 1920 to 1950. The book compares principled models with later “pragmatic nonviolence” approaches, most notably the work of Gene Sharp, which appeared in the 1970s. Nepstad notes that though others often depict principled and pragmatic nonviolence as divergent models, the two share similar tactical steps. She argues that where they differ most is in the ultimate goal: converting opponents (Gandhian principled nonviolence) versus ending oppressive acts (Sharp’s pragmatic nonviolence). Nepstad describes how Martin Luther King, Jr. blended the two approaches, something she explores later in detail with a vivid and fascinating examination of the diffusion of Gandhian ideas into the U.S. Civil Rights movement (Chapter 8).
Throughout the book, readers benefit from the inclusion of accessible, widespread, and diverse examples that include sufficient detail without going overboard. These range from Indian Independence to the Plowshares movement, the fight against apartheid in South Africa, the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the Serbian ouster of Slobodan Milošević, the United Farm Workers movement, Indonesian student protests, the 1986 Philippine movement, and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. The sections on the Arab Spring are particularly authoritative and contemporary, including interesting comparisons of the national cases in a dedicated chapter on the role of armed forces. These examples illustrate the point that nonviolent protest is widespread and often successful. They also debunk misconceptions that Nepstad outlines in the book’s first chapter (that nonviolence is about neutrality or passivity; that it is solely for institutional politics, negotiation, or persuasion; that it can be used only in democratic contexts; that it requires a charismatic leader; or that it is only for those with privilege). The case descriptions will be helpful to undergraduate students who are unfamiliar with these movements, but they are also engaging for readers that are more knowledgeable.
Nepstad’s Nonviolent Struggle will be of particular interest to those studying strategies and tactics because it includes a compendium of types and dynamics of nonviolent struggle, as well as an assessment of outcomes. Her appraisal is very helpful because the literature on outcomes has bloomed since 2000, gaining the attention ofpolicymakers and political analysts. Nepstad’s approach is measured and pays attention to the varying empirical work in related disciplines (sociology, international relations, political science, etc.). She notes the confluence and disagreement within the evidence on outcomes and points out the need for additional empirical investigation.
In the last chapter, Nepstad highlights the fact that most work on nonviolence has occurred in sites of authoritarian regimes, colonialism, democracy, and autocratic “hybrids.” She concludes that we know little about nonviolent struggles under monarchy or theocracy or in areas controlled by non-state entities such as narco-traffickers, warlords, or terrorists, all of whom are becoming more prominent and perhaps more violent in many places around the world. Nepstad also argues that we know little about movements that protest non-state targets (organized crime, police corruption, structural violence, etc.), and that more work should attend to shifts between nonviolent and violent tactics within the same movements.
Although we often need good comprehensive texts by authoritative voices, it can be hard to find books that are engaging, understandable, up to date, and with sufficient coverage to orient students and those new to an area of study. This book is a rare exception. It is likely to jumpstart future scholarship in what Nepstad calls a “small but vibrant field” that has come “into the scholarly limelight” (p.x).