SAN FRANCISCO, U.S.A., May 11, 2003: In a review of Jonathan Schell’s new book, “The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence and the Will of the People,” Curiel says, “It’s clear that the peace movement in the United States and abroad succeeded on a basic level: They gave voice to an ideology that — in the long run — may be more powerful than B-52 bombers and Pentagon blueprints.” As Schell carefully documents in this book (which took 12 years to research and write), nonviolent resistance always sows the seeds of positive change, eventually creating openings that may not be apparent in the fury and emotion of the moment. Mohandas Gandhi’s attempts in the early 1900s to win rights for Indians in South Africa paved the way for his revolutionary nonviolence movement that crested with India’s independence from Britain in 1947. President Woodrow Wilson’s failed effort to create a League of Nations in 1917 led, years later, to the United Nations. Schell cites a long list of such examples, but he also examines the apparent successes of war — especially in the 20th century, when both world wars set new standards of military possibilities. For the full insightful review, click on “source” above.
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