We Are Power: How Nonviolent Activism Changed the World

In his introduction to this cogent appeal to young fighters of injustice, Hasak-Lowy (Roses and Radicals) carefully distinguishes institutional activism from nonviolent activism: the more “disruptive, risky tactics that challenge those in power and interrupt the way things normally work—without taking up arms.” Succeeding chapters, illustrated with black-and-white photos, cover Gandhi’s advocation of nonviolent resistance during India’s quest for independence, Alice Paul’s campaign for women’s right to vote, Martin Luther King Jr.’s fight for civil rights, Cesar Chavez’s work organizing farmworkers, and Vaclav Havel’s leadership of the 1989 Czech “Velvet Revolution.” In each case, despite different hostile conditions, activists’ insistence on nonviolent but forceful actions successfully mobilized large groups of courageous people to fight for what they believed was right. Hasak-Lowy argues that oppressed individuals can create powerful change and that individual responses enable change. A striking and very timely conclusion highlights teenage Greta Thunberg’s bold challenge to fight global climate change. Substantial back matter covers other notable movements of the past century and includes notes and a bibliography. Ages 10–14. [em](Apr.) [/em]