Did not finish. Clearing my plate for 2018.

The topic is important and the bookis dry, but only because there is no attempt and no need to glorify and sensationalize the topic. An exellent history of non-violence in the later portion of this volume. The first volume presents the view that tyrants have as much power as the people give them. interesting.

You might want to read the other volumes too

أقل ما يقال عن التنظير على شعب تحت احتلال وتوجيهه لاختيار طريقة معينة في "الكفاح" بأنها وقاحة!

طورت لجان المقاومة الشعبيه الفلسطينية منهج كفاح لا عنف يفتخر به في السنوات الماضيه ، نتائجه مرحلية . جذب التعاطف وهذه النتائج لن تحرر بلادا وهذا امر واقع!

يسترسل بأنه ليس ذو خلفية معرفية متماسكة عن الوضع في الجانب الفلسطيني لكنه يظن بأن تجارب شعوب أخرى قد تنجح مع شعبنا. ويتوغل في الوقاحة بأن الكفاح الفلسطيني اللاعنيف سيكون مفيدا للشعب "الاسرائيلي" الذي سيحظى اخيرا بمجتمعه المثالي ويتخلص من عبء احتلال شعب اخر.

الشعب الفلسطيني كان رائدا في تجربة العصيان المدني في ثورة 36 لكن تجربة كفاح اللاعنف يجب ان تسير جنبا الى جنب مع الكفاح الثوري العنيف.

This is the first volume of Sharp's classic treatment of nonviolent resistance to power. Perhaps because it is a classic most of this brief volume seems familiar to me. Having read a lot of other work in the nonviolent resistance genre of dissident and radical thought, I am familiar with most of what he says. Sharp was the first to codify the scattered writings into a cohesive whole, which is precisely what makes it valuable. The brevity of the book (barely 100 pages) is to its advantage, as many people in repressed countries around the world have discovered to their delight. Anyway, it is good to have read this, and I will be working through volumes two and three in due course.

It’s a shame that this book is not more widespread and sharpe’s analysis and work synthesizing the struggles together are really great for thinking through issues that we are facing right now in the United States. Highly recommend

This 1973 publication has been translated into many languages and served as a revolutionary manual for insurgencies around the world. It is very relevant to the current RESISTANCE movement in America. It shows that "peaceful demonstrations" and other acts of citizen resistance to state authority can be A FORM OF WARFARE. Public Resistance, implemented strategically through "Nonviolent Action," can and will undermine the capacity of government to rule. Examples from history are provided to illustrate the power of Resistance from THE BUREAUCRACY as well as from the general population. Reading these histories will alert us to the potential consequences of events we observe in our own day.
"Changes in the attitudes of ... citizens ... which result in withdrawal of obedience and cooperation can create extreme difficulties for the system (government). It can be disrupted or paralyzed. ...The sheer difficulties of maintaining the normal working of any political unit when its subjects are bent upon an attitude of defiance and acts of obstruction are sufficient to give any ruler cause for thought. Without the obedience, cooperation, assistance and submission of the subjects and agents, ... men claiming to be rulers would be 'rulers' without subjects, and therefore only 'objects of derision.'" (p.32)

Practical, focused, engagingly written, and refreshingly free from histrionics, this is the best book about how social movements actually happen that I've read. After squinting my way through a lot of obfuscating bullshit on similar subjects it's refreshing to find an emperor who's fully clothed. I definitely plan on reading the other volumes.

Sharp gives an interesting view and understanding on Non-violent action and behavior. It is helpful in understanding Gandhi and other non-voilent movements.

Obvious yet eye-opening. I'll probably read the other parts (Methods, Dynamics) soon.

insightful, wide-ranging -- and readable -- 3 volume exploration of nonviolent action, by one of the great thinkers on the subject

Brilliant, methodical, and has an excellent bibliography.

I remember Eugene Genovese's description of nonviolent slave resistance in the Old South in his Roll, Jordan, Roll The World the Slaves Made. Sharp's work on nonviolent political action led me to a greater understand of this and other parts of history.