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Further Reading for the Class of Nonviolence

Lesson one: If you only get one film, we recommend "A Force More Powerful," available from <www.aforcemorepowerful.org>. It’s the perfect film (there is also a companion book by Peter Ackerman and Jack Duvall) for teaching and learning about nonviolent movements. Mark Kurlansky’s "Nonviolence: Twenty-five lessons from the history of a dangerous idea" is a sweeping summary of the philosophy and history of nonviolence. For those interested in exploring the interplay between inner peace and world peace, we recommend Thich Nhat Hanh’s "Peace is Every Step: The power of mindfulness in everyday life."

Lesson two: We find Gandhi’s own writing a hard slog, but a gentle and intensely personal introduction is his grandson Arun Gandhi’s "Legacy of Love: my education in the path of nonviolence."

Lesson three: The ideal follow-up to this lesson is Dorothy Day’s autobiography, "The Long Loneliness."

Lesson four: Every nonviolent bookshelf should have a well-thumbed copy of "A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr."

Lesson five: It’s out of print, but used copies are readily available of "We Are All Part of One Another: Barbara Deming Reader," edited by Jane Meyerding. Deming perfectly captures the intersection between feminism and nonviolent activism.

Lesson six: We recommend a pair of anthologies, "The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace," edited by Howard Zinn and "Peace Is the Way," edited by Walter Wink for the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Lesson seven: A thoughtful counterpoint to the idea of a just war is "Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices For Abolishing War" by Glen H. Stassen.

Lesson eight: In "The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter," Peter Singer and Jim Mason document corporate deception, waste and desensitization to inhumane practices by examining three families’ grocery buying habits and the motivations behind those choices.