This book provides a critical history of the connection between freedom and violence and recovers the lesser-known history of the pursuit of freedom through nonviolence in the Western political tradition. Part I explores liberation movements and revolutions. Violent revolutions in the name of freedom typically slip into internecine violence, tyranny, or slavery. Nonviolent movements, such as the abolitionist and women’s movements, have achieved freedom for more people and set the stage for the nonviolent overthrow of repressive governments throughout the world. Part II explores the surprising ... More

This book provides a critical history of the connection between freedom and violence and recovers the lesser-known history of the pursuit of freedom through nonviolence in the Western political tradition. Part I explores liberation movements and revolutions. Violent revolutions in the name of freedom typically slip into internecine violence, tyranny, or slavery. Nonviolent movements, such as the abolitionist and women’s movements, have achieved freedom for more people and set the stage for the nonviolent overthrow of repressive governments throughout the world. Part II explores the surprising history of the commonplace idea that freedom can be defended with violence. In the early Roman Republic, one finds that the poorest citizens defended their ability to participate in government by refusing to participate in wars. Not until the modern era did the idea of defending freedom come to mean defending one’s life and property with violence, which in turn provides the basis for liberal and republican justifications for war and state sovereignty. Part III discusses the history of collective freedom. Looking to ancient Athens, one finds self-government exercised through the domination of others but also women, philosophers, and tragedians articulating a counter-tradition. The idea of collective freedom exercised through violence was resuscitated in contemporary nationalism and socialism, unleashing explosive violence. Part IV develops a theory of nonviolent political freedom. Every individual has the capacity for violence, but the free will also means that it is never necessary. The creative free wills of individuals can come together to form nonviolent collective self-rule.