Violence and its Alternatives: An Interdisciplinary Reader

The proliferation of violence is arguably one of the most crucial topics of concern in an era of ethnic wars on one hand, and cultural debates about what constitutes violence in arenas of pornography, nationalism, race relations, the media, even environmental issues on the other. Violence and its Alternatives fills the existing gap in the literature on violence with a collection of essays from the most influential writers in the fields of politics, psychology, sociology, gender studies, and race studies. Methodologically diverse and intellectually wide-ranging, it appeals alike to specialists, students, and an interested public. This collection has two features not found in any other discussions of violence: first, a full spectrum of views ranging across disciplines, from now-classic treatments of the subject by philosophers such as Hannah Arendt and Frantz Fanon to postmodern considerations of violence embedded in social structures from the likes of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida; and second, the first interdisciplinary study of nonviolence, a thoughtful and serious look at the alternatives to violence from spiritual leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. A sobering look at power and its exploitation, Violence and its Alternatives nonetheless offers optimism and hope through the systematic exploration of non-violent strategies for a more peaceful community.