Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. Proving it works: from early beginnings to stunning success -- Early developments -- Gandhi: defeating the British Empire -- Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhian nonviolence: the battle against American racism -- Nonviolent intervention in guerrilla warfare -- Wheelchairs versus tanks -- Part II. Defeating the Soviet Empire -- Solidarity: a trade union and the Pope versus Communist dictators -- The revolution of the candles: the nonviolent overthrow of East German Communists -- Part III. Recent victories of a growing movement -- "Gather the women to pray for peace": Liberian women overthrow a dictator -- Nonviolence in the Arab Spring -- Intervening, accompanying, and reporting: the growth of peacemaker teams -- Part IV. The time to act -- Truly testing the possibilities of nonviolent action: for the first time in Christian history -- The moral equivalent of war.

A noted theologian and bestselling author shows how nonviolent action has been practiced in history and in current social-political situations to promote peace and oppose injustice.