With clarity and insight, Barry Gan has provided an engaging, illuminating, and original perspective
on the problems of violence and nonviolence. A valuable contribution to understanding these
issues, readily accessible to a general audience.

Robert L. Holmes, University of Rochester

In this introduction to violence and nonviolence, Gan (philosophy, Bonaventure U.) focuses on subjective and intersubjective violence and examines common myths about violence, noting logical inconsistencies as well as ways to overcome their rhetorical force. These include the idea that violence is exclusively a physical act, that there are good people and bad people (i.e. and good perpetrators of violence and bad ones), that some measured violence is always necessary to prevent greater violence, and that wrongdoers must be punished and forgo their some or all of their worth as humans in the process. The second part of the text is about thinking through nonviolence as a radical practice and comprehensive strategy in light of the 'fuller account of violence' Gans is offering. He is at odds with the idea that 'ends justify the means,' but agrees in the end with Plato that 'it is better to be injured than to injure.'

Book News, Inc.

This is the book that teachers of nonviolence have been waiting for! Barry Gan exposes five cultural myths with regard to violence, and demonstrates clearly the importance of intention, not merely action, with regard to violence. He argues his case with the precision of a careful philosopher and the pace of a good storyteller. Gan’s is an utterly honest account, and is never merely theoretical. Perhaps the most creative aspect of this book is his explication of the difference between selective nonviolence (nonviolence as a political strategy) and comprehensive nonviolence (nonviolence as a way of life). Barry Gan makes an eloquent case for comprehensive nonviolence. This will be an important book for use in classes looking at violence and nonviolence in philosophy, sociology, psychology, history, and in general education.

Andrew Fitz-Gibbon, SUNY Cortland