Mark Kurlansky.Noviolència: història d’una idea perillosa. (The History of a Dangerous Idea).Barcelona: Institut Català Internacional per la Pau; Pagès, 2012. Collection “Noviolència i lluita per la pau”, 5.
“The first clue, lesson number one from human history on the subject of nonviolence, is that there is no word for it.” However, Mark Kurlansky’s book shows us that there have always been people who have practiced it, although there haven’t been many and they have often been persecuted by states that considered them dangerous. Nonviolence is one of the few truly revolutionary ideas, an idea that aspires to completely change the nature of society, a threat to the established order. Kurlansky reviews nonviolence in human history in a bold, concise and original manner and, at the end of the book, he offers twenty-five lessons on the nature, meaning, implications and potential of nonviolence.
The preface of this edition was written by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
About the author
After graduating in arts and refusing to serve in the United States Army, Mark Kurlansky worked all kinds of jobs: playwright, dock worker, pastry chef, etc. Between 1976 and 1991 he was a foreign correspondent for several newspapers, such as The International Herald Tribune. In his numerous articles, courses and conferences, he has dealt with issues such as the history of food, writing, the environment and nonviolence. In 2007 he was awarded the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonviolence for this book.