In this volume, Peter Ackerman, an authority on non-violent strategy, and Jack DuVall, a veteran writer, show how popular movements used non-violent action to overthrow dictators, obstruct military invaders and secure human rights in country after country, over the past century. A cavalcade of far-flung locations and history-changing crises, the book depicts how non-violent sanctions such as protests, strikes and boycotts separate brutal regimes from their means of control. It tells inside stories – how Danes out-manoeuvered the Nazis, Solidarity defeated Polish communism, and mass action removed a Chilean dictator. It also shows how non-violent power is changing the world today, from Burma to Serbia. Covering characters such as Leo Tolstoy and Mohandas Gandhi, Lech Walesa and the mothers of the disappeared in Argentina, the book is a companion to a feature-length documentary showing at film festivals worldwide.

This nationally-acclaimed book shows how popular movements used nonviolent action to overthrow dictators, obstruct military invaders and secure human rights in country after country, over the past century. Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall depict how nonviolent sanctions–such as protests, strikes and boycotts–separate brutal regimes from their means of control. They tell inside stories–how Danes outmaneuvered the Nazis, Solidarity defeated Polish communism, and mass action removed a Chilean dictator–and also how nonviolent power is changing the world today, from Burma to Serbia.