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Revision as of 08:04, 4 September 2020
, 08:04, 4 September 2020no edit summary
The most interesting, although by no means taking the most space, is the argument for the non-violent struggle as opposed to the armed struggle. The other chapters, concerned with detailed consideration of various aspects of non-violent struggle, are filled with the information and advice that would undoubtedly be helpful for those actively engaged in or planning such struggle. For a lay reader like your reviewer, however, ''From Dictatorship to Democracy''is rather heavy going while strangely lacking . This is partially due to the generic formula that only rarely refers to any particular examples, and partially to the voice and style of the text. The third-person voice that is standard in academic writing leads to a convoluted, dry and stilted wording. I confess I struggled to finish the descriptive part of ''From Dictatorship to Democracy''.
And thus I am left with a quandary as to how to treat Sharp's book. Unless you are a member of anti-dictatorship movement organising the resistance, it will be probably more informative – and quite possibly easier – to read other Sharp's works, for example ''Sharp's Dictionary of Power and Struggle: Language of Civil Resistance in Conflicts'' or ''Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice And 21st Century Potential''. On the other hand, if you want to own a somewhat iconic text associated with major political upheavals of the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st, then ''From Dictatorship to Democracy'' is as good a token volume as they come. Shelve next to [[In the Name of the People: Pseudo-Democracy and the Spoiling of Our World by Ivo Mosley]].
Those interested in political change and dissent might enjoy (or find interesting) [[Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast]], [[The New Rulers Of The World by John Pilger]], [[Interventions by Noam Chomsky]] or even [[Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell]].
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