11 Comments
author

Just a correction from my muddled brain: Left Bank Books in Seattle never published "How Nonviolence Protects the State"...

but they did publish my 2013 follow-up, "The Failure of Nonviolence," in which I try to orient more towards the dominant Gene Sharp/NGO variety of nonviolence, the State Department backed "Color Revolutions," and all the meaningful revolts taking over streets and entire cities in the years between 2005 and 2013.

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Oct 30Liked by Peter Gelderloos

This was really fun and an interesting/inspiring look into the behind the scenes stories to your first book. Thank you for sharing! I was in high school during a lot of the stuff described, but I still love hearing all the stories from the period right before I was able to be involved. Living in rural Canada it all seemed so far away, save for the message boards I was able to be a part of.

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Oct 30Liked by Peter Gelderloos

Thanks for writing it, Peter.

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Oct 31Liked by Peter Gelderloos

I read the book a few years ago and it absolutely changed my mind. That's the best praise I can give a book. I now have others of yours on my coffee table waiting to be read. Keep up the great work.

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Oct 30Liked by Peter Gelderloos

I stumbled upon this book on Audible Anarchist and thought YES, this guy knows what he's talking about and I've been reading your work ever since.

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Oct 30Liked by Peter Gelderloos

Yeah I enjoyed these recollections, thank you for sharing them.

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Oct 30Liked by Peter Gelderloos

This book had a huge impact on me when I was first exploring anarchism. Thank you for all the great writing you’ve done over the years Peter.

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founding
Nov 1Liked by Peter Gelderloos

I loved this back story! What a wild ride, eh?

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author

You said it!

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Beautifully written, thank you for sharing this story <3

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Such a shame that this book is not yet translated into Portuguese, because time and time again the ideology of nonviolence comes up to haunt and disrupt radical movements. In the massive protests back in 2013 it was a big issue, along with horizontality and assemblies, and it was discussed all the time, to the point of protests having their own non violence police

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