Reading the book pushed me to think about how nonviolence is used as a tactic in a deeper way and demonstrated how people can exert power despite seeming not to have any. From Gandhi to Greta Thunberg, the chapters kind of built on each other. Includes the Black Civil Rights movement, Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers strike, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia.
Big ideas but approachable text with images. ( )

"Hasak-Lowy introduces a polemic: Over the last war-ridden century, nonviolent activism has proven to be a powerful way to effect social change.

He chronologically presents five significant movements, focusing on leaders who fostered the resources of aggrieved people—their bodies, courage, and persistence—to oppose injustice nonviolently. Mohandas K. Gandhi, initially among Indian workers in South Africa, then in India, adopted techniques of nonviolent resistance to gain independence from British colonial rule. The American suffragist Alice Paul, drawing on her Quaker upbringing, led the “Silent Sentinels”: banner-wielding women who demonstrated at the White House. These activists endured beatings, arrests, incarceration, forced feedings during hunger strikes, and more in their determined quest for their full rights as citizens. The chapter on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. credits his many mentors and collaborators, presenting their arduous work in planning and executing civil action in Birmingham. In early May 1963, thousands of demonstrating Birmingham youth endured water cannons, police dogs, and widespread arrests, stunning the nation. Chapters on Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers movement and Vaclav Havel and Czechoslovakia’s astounding Velvet Revolution round out the volume. The author deftly connects these movements: Far from avoiding conflict, each leader actively engaged in it, helping people reassume the power previously ceded to their oppressors. A concluding section cogently illuminates Greta Thunberg’s urgent work on the climate crisis.

This excellent, timely overview will open eyes and deserves a wide readership. (other notable movements, source notes, bibliography, index) " From Kirkus Reviews, www.kirkusreviews.com