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Suggestions for our May & June 2008 Non-Fiction book
- Mr. P
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Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea
Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea - by Mark Kurlansky
I liked Kurlansky's "Salt: A World History". He is a very engaging writer.
I liked Kurlansky's "Salt: A World History". He is a very engaging writer.
Book Description
In this timely, highly original, and controversial narrative, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky discusses nonviolence as a distinct entity, a course of action, rather than a mere state of mind. Nonviolence can and should be a technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars, he asserts, which is why it is the preferred method of those who speak truth to power.
Nonviolence is a sweeping yet concise history that moves from ancient Hindu times to present-day conflicts raging in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kurlansky also brings into focus just why nonviolence is a "dangerous" idea, and asks such provocative questions as: Is there such a thing as a "just war"? Could nonviolence have worked against even the most evil regimes in history?
Kurlansky draws from history twenty-five provocative lessons on the subject that we can use to effect change today. He shows how, time and again, violence is used to suppress nonviolence and its practitioners–Gandhi and Martin Luther King, for example; that the stated deterrence value of standing national armies and huge weapons arsenals is, at best, negligible; and, encouragingly, that much of the hard work necessary to begin a movement to end war is already complete. It simply needs to be embraced and accelerated.
Engaging, scholarly, and brilliantly reasoned, Nonviolence is a work that compels readers to look at history in an entirely new way. This is not just a manifesto for our times but a trailblazing book whose time has come.
- Lawrence
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I propose Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed I think his thesis statement is:
Dangers to a society may be mortal without being immediate. One such danger is the prevailing social vision of our time --and the dogmatism with which the ideas, assumptions, and attitudes behind that vision are held.
The Historian Arnold Toynbe believed the seven civilizations which existed before our own, all self-destructed from within, never from without. Do we really think Western Civilization will escape the mistakes of history when we apparently have failed to learn the lessons of history? Obviously I don't, which is why I'm writing my blog.Much of the continent of Europe was devastated in World WarII because the totalitarian regime of the Nazis did not permit those who foresaw the self-destructive consequences of Hitler's policies to alter, or even to ingfluence, those policies. In earlier eras as well, many individuals foresaw the self-destruction of their own civilizations, from the days of the Roman Empire to the eras of the Spanish, Ottoman, and other empires. Yet that alone was not enough to change the course that was leading to ruin. Today, despite free speech and the mass media, the prevailing social vision is dangerously close to sealing itsel off from any discordant feedback from reality.
- Saffron
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The Chalice & The Blade
I'd like to recommend almost any book by Riane Eisler. A good beginning point might be The Chalice & The Blade.
http://www.amazon.com/Chalice-Blade-Our ... 819&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Chalice-Blade-Our ... 819&sr=8-1
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Some books are like revelations, they open the spirit to unimaginable possibilities. The Chalice and the Blade is one of those magnificent key books that can transform us and...initiate fundamental changes in the world. With the most passionate eloquence, Riane Eisler proves that the dream of peace is not an impossible utopia. -- Isabelle Allende, author of The House of the Spirits --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
I also like the idea of the book DWill recommended, Embracing your inner fish - I think that was it.
- Saffron
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please excuse my public learning
Okay, I figured out how to use the quote box, but not exactly. Somehow my last thought ended up inside the quote box. On top of that, I incorrectly sited the title. Goes to show you my short term memory does not exist!
- DWill
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I could also support either of the books recommended by JulianTheApostate. The one on pharmacology is more specialized, perhaps, than the usual type of selection, but I happen to be interested in that topic and somewhat connected with it professionally.
The ways of thinking that we have, but which are unknown to us, is always a fascinating topic (this would be the Airely book).
Will
The ways of thinking that we have, but which are unknown to us, is always a fascinating topic (this would be the Airely book).
Will