When Chester tells his mother about the school bully, she asks him to gather his friends to hear a story about getting along with people who are prickly.

Reviews over two dozen coercion-based practices, including human sacrifice, genocide, war, terrorism, revolution, political murder, riots, homicide, imprisonment, capital punishment, torture, religious persecution, slavery, debt bondage, and taxation. Examples and data are drawn from all over the world, including ancient Rome, medieval Japan, early modern England, revolutionary Russia, and four centuries of American history. Payne concludes that the...

Examines the relevance of nonviolent tactics to current debates about political action and political thought. Nonviolent political action has played a significant role in achieving social and political change in the last century. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were prominent proponents of nonviolence. Nonviolent political action or civil resistance has also been central to toppling communist regimes in Eastern Europe and to pro-democracy popular...