Civil Resistance

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Erica Chenoweth

What Everyone Needs To Know®

Introduces the essentials of how and why civil resistance works in a conversational and accessible style
Reviews the current field of knowledge on civil resistance with reference to both historical and contemporary cases
Demonstrates the important role of civil resistance in the world we live in today

Civil Resistance

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Erica Chenoweth

Description

A sweeping overview of civil resistance movements around the world that explains what they are, how they work, why they are often effective, and why they can fail.

Civil resistance is a method of conflict for 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. Without a thorough understanding of civil resistance and its many dynamics and manifestations, one would be hard-pressed to make sense of the world that we live in today. Civil resistance is an idea whose time has come.

Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know® explains what civil resistance is, how it works, why it sometimes fails, how violence and repression affect civil resistance movements, and the long-term impacts of civil 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 and engaging review of the current field of knowledge.

Civil Resistance

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Erica Chenoweth

What Everyone Needs To Know®

Chapter 1: What is Civil Resistance?
Chapter 2: How Civil Resistance Works
Chapter 3: Civil Resistance and Violence against the Movement
Chapter 4: Civil Resistance and Violence from within the Movement
Chapter 5: Civil Resistance Around the World
Chapter 6: The Long-Term Effects of Civil Resistance
Chapter 7: Civil Resistance Today and Tomorrow
Chapter 8: Resources

Civil Resistance

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Erica Chenoweth

What Everyone Needs To Know®

Author Information

Erica Chenoweth, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Erica Chenoweth is the Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights & International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Foreign Policy ranked Chenoweth among the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2013 for "proving Gandhi right." Chenoweth also won the 2014 Karl Deutsch Award, given annually by the International Studies Association to the scholar under 40 who has made the most significant impact on the field of international politics or peace research. Chenoweth is the co-author of Why Civil Resistance Works, which won the American Political Science Association's Woodrow Wilson Prize, the most prestigious award in the field.

Civil Resistance

What Everyone Needs to Know®

Erica Chenoweth

What Everyone Needs To Know®

Reviews and Awards

"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. February 2022.

"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

"Chenoweth provides a fantastic compendium of scholarship and general insights on civil resistance that should be valuable for academics and activists alike." - Jessica Maves Braithwaite, International Relations

"Erica Chenoweth's latest book...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

"Erica Chenoweth has written an excellent book on civil resistance" - Ron Pagnucco, The Journal of Social Encounters

"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