Erica Chenoweth. Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
Civil resistance is a method of conflict through which unarmed civilians use a variety of coordinated methods (strikes, protests, demonstrations, boycotts, and many other tactics) to prosecute a conflict without directly harming or threatening to harm an opponent. Sometimes called nonviolent resistance, unarmed struggle, or nonviolent action, this form of political action is now a mainstay across the globe. It was a central form of resistance in postwar anti-colonial movements, the 1989 revolutions, and the Arab Awakenings, and people are practicing civil resistance at higher rates than ever before around the world, including in the United States. If we want to understand the manifold protest movements emerging around the globe, we need a thorough understanding of civil resistance and its many dynamics and manifestations.
In Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know®, Erica Chenoweth–one of the world’s leading scholars on the topic–explains what civil resistance is, how it works, why it sometimes fails, how violence and repression affect it, and the long-term impacts of such resistance. Featuring both historical cases of civil resistance and more contemporary examples such as the Arab Awakenings and various ongoing movements in the United States, this book provides a comprehensive yet pithy overview of this enormously important subject.
Features
- Introduces the essentials of how and why civil resistance works in a conversational and accessible style
- Concise yet systematic overview that draws from both historical and contemporary cases, including the present-day United States
- Demonstrates the important role of civil resistance in the world we live in today
Now in Audiobook.
Get translations in Dutch, Italian, Japanese, or Burmese.
Praise for Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know
“A major contribution to the human race.”
– Mary Elizabeth King, Professor, UN University for Peace & Distinguished Rothermere American Institute Fellow, University of Oxford
“With violence in the streets and the efficacy of non-violence in question, this book could not be more tragically, propitiously timed. We as a country are literally wrestling with the text, the subtext, and the whole of this book. Civil Resistance speaks to what we need to do and how we need to do it. It gives us historical context, an empirical basis, and moral direction for how to change the world. A critically important book—now—right now.”
– Cornell William Brooks, Professor, Harvard Kennedy School; Former President & CEO, NAACP
“This book is a remarkable achievement, synthesizing up-to-date research, new case accounts, and significant new insights in a way that is accessible to all. Take its title literally. It is a guide for everyone—whether new or with years of experience—to the dynamics of nonviolent movements fighting for rights, freedom, and justice. I highly recommend it.”
– Hardy Merriman, President & CEO, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
“Full of practical lessons and inspiring examples from countries worldwide, Chenoweth’s book is the closest thing we in the US have to a how-to guide for defanging Trumpism…Sadly, there’s no book of magic spells with instructions for how to cast out the demons of authoritarianism. But Erica Chenoweth’s book is the user manual we need for the long and difficult struggle ahead of us.”
– Deepak Bhargava and Harry Hanbury, The Forge
“Civil Resistance is an absolutely essential book for peace activists and anybody interested in history or in creating a better world. So pretty much everyone, then.”
– Ian Sinclair, Peace News
“It can be an immense challenge to strike a balance between commentary that is relevant for both activists and scholars, but Chenoweth has done this masterfully.”
– Jessica Maves Braithwaite, Perspectives on Politics
“This book is as much advocacy as it is an analysis of nonviolence. Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know is an unwavering introductory guide and comprehensive toolkit to civil resistance’s methods and potential.”
– Maiyoraa Jeyabraba, Journal of Peace Research
“Erica Chenoweth’s latest book Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know offers a detailed and approachable insight into civil resistance, representing the pinnacle of their work on the use of violence within civil action.”
– Francisca Castro, Social Movement Studies
