Brian Martin's publications on peace, war and nonviolence
The literature on peace and war is enormous, and when works on self-management, bureaucracy, the state and so forth are added, the sum total is daunting to say the least. Out of the material I have read myself, included here is only a select list. Listed are some of those works which I have found most useful, together with relevant works by authors cited in the text. I have tried to keep the number of works mentioned small, and therefore many valuable items are not listed here. One important restriction, due to my own cultural and language limitations, is that most of the material listed here originated in English-speaking countries.
I would be happy to respond to the best of my ability to any requests for further information or references, and to any questions, comments or criticisms: contact me at bmartin@uow.edu.au.
Before listing references relevant to the various chapters, I list some key journals and books.
For keeping up with the latest and most incisive thought and action about challenging the war system, I have found the following the most useful of English-language journals.
Our Generation, 3981 boulevard Saint-Laurent, Montréal, Quebec H2W 1Y5, Canada. Published about four times per year, Our Generation includes in depth radical analyses on a range of issues, in particular peace, feminism, ecology, labour studies and urban transformation. The critique and programme developed within the journal is sustained and focussed and hence highly valuable.
Peace News, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DY, Britain. Published monthly, Peace News, subtitled 'for nonviolent revolution', features numerous articles, news reports and reviews. Nonviolent alternatives and struggles against oppression are dealt with using the perspectives of feminism, anarchism, socialism and environmentalism. The articles are usually too short to develop arguments in depth, but the key issues are almost invariably raised, and the reviews point to much of the important contemporary work.
Social Alternatives, C/- Department of Government, University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia. Appearing four times per year, Social Alternatives has covered a wide range of issues, including black alternatives, anarchism, multiculturalism, environment and, in particular, peace. The basic approach is oriented towards nonviolent, fundamental change in society. Most of the articles are substantial, though sometimes rather academic in style.
Virginia Coover, Ellen Deacon, Charles Esser and Christopher Moore, Resource Manual for a Living Revolution (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1981). This manual has been widely used for nonviolent action training since the mid-1970s and thus has had a large influence on a range of social movements. As well as basic material on nonviolent action training, the book also includes material on a theory of social change, working in groups, developing communities of support, personal growth and organising. As a resource manual it has proved invaluable, but there has been a tendency in some places to focus too much on the techniques offered, and to use the manual uncritically. One problem is that its perspective is usually individual-oriented, without enough attention to social structures and opposition forces being confronted. In summary: use often but with care.
Erik Dammann, Revolution in the Affluent Society (London: Heretic Books, 1984; translated from the Norwegian by Louis Mackay). This is an eloquent argument for a rich-country revolution based on human solidarity, especially with people in poor countries. Dammann cogently argues against elitist solutions from the right or left. The implications of his perspective for grassroots strategy, though, are not completely clear.
Johan Galtung, The True Worlds: A Transnational Perspective (New York: Free Press, 1980). Galtung is one of the most insightful writers on peace issues from a grassroots perspective. His numerous essays on peace research have been collected and published in six volumes; The True Worlds provides a useful summary. Galtung adopts a wide ranging perspective, looking at structural violence, global dynamics, nonmilitary defence and many other topics. While his insights are superb and frequent, his style is rather intellectual and the implications of his analysis for social action are not always so clear.
André Gorz, Strategy for Labor: A Radical Proposal (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967; translated from the French by Martin A. Nicolaus and Victoria Ortiz). In this classic book Gorz presents a penetrating critique of capitalist society and work relations, and argues the case for workers' self-management achieved through grassroots action via 'nonreformist reform.' Gorz goes well beyond the usual labour strategies, but his analysis is limited to capitalist societies and he adopts an uncritical Marxist perspective on the state.
George Lakey, Strategy for a Living Revolution (New York: Grossman, 1973). This inspiring book presents a five-part programme for nonviolent social revolution. Lakey's treatment is excellent for putting grassroots efforts into a wider perspective on social change, and for an explicit and commonsense orientation to nonviolent revolution. The main limitation in my opinion is his lack of a deeper analysis of the prevailing social structures and forces which will oppose or attack social movements.
Mentioned:
Karl Hess, Community Technology (New York: Harper and Row, 1979).
David Morris, 'Adams Morgan revisited: lessons from community technology' (essay review of Karl Hess, Community Technology), Self-reliance, number 19, May-June 1979, pages 3, 10-11.
David Morris and Karl Hess, Neighborhood Power: The New Localism (Boston: Beacon, 1975).
Kirkpatrick Sale, Human Scale (New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1980).
A good fraction of this chapter is based on considerably revised portions of my article 'Mobilising against nuclear war: the insufficiency of knowledge and logic,' Social Alternatives, volume 1, numbers 6/7, June 1980, pages 6-11.
Mentioned:
Richard J. Barnet, The Economy of Death (New York: Atheneum, 1969) and Roots of War (New York: Atheneum, 1972).
Robert Cooney and Helen Michalowski (editors), The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States (Culver City, California: Power of the People Publishing Project, 1977).
William Epstein, The Last Chance: Nuclear Proliferation and Arms Control (New York: Free Press, 1976).
Johan Galtung, The True Worlds: A Transnational Perspective (New York: Free Press, 1980).
Ralph Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969).
Bob Overy, How Effective Are Peace Movements? (London: Housmans, 1982).
Nigel Young, An Infantile Disorder? The Crisis and Decline the New Left (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977).
On the limitations of the 'revolution first' perspective see for example Michael Albert, What is to be Undone: A Modern Revolutionary Discussion of Classical Left Ideologies (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1974).
On grassroots organising, see for example: Si Kahn, Organizing, A Guide for Grassroots Leaders (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982); Ed Hedemann (editor), War Resisters League Organizer's Manual (New York: War Resisters League, 1981).
On fostering internal democracy in social action groups, see for example: Virginia Coover, Ellen Deacon, Charles Esser and Christopher Moore, Resource Manual for a Living Revolution (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1981); The Training/Action Affinity Group of Movement for a New Society, Building Social Change Communities (Philadelphia: Movement for a New Society, 1979).
Most of the first section of this chapter ('What is social defence?') is taken or adapted from Canberra Peacemakers' 1982 broadsheet 'Social defence,' written mainly by Sky Hopkins, Claire Runciman, Frances Sutherland and myself. Information on the historical examples presented is provided in Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973).
On social defence see:
Anders Boserup and Andrew Mack, War Without Weapons: Non-violence in National Defence (London: Frances Pinter, 1974).
Antonino Drago, 'Towards a political programme for a nonviolent popular defence,' Gandhi Marg, number 47, February 1983, pages 879-895.
Johan Galtung, Peace, War and Defense. Essays in Peace Research, Volume Two (Copenhagen: Christian Ejlers, 1976).
Gustaaf Geeraerts (editor), Possibilities of Civilian Defence in Western Europe (Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger, 1977).
Gene Keyes, 'Strategic non-violent defense: the construct of an option,' Journal of Strategic Studies, volume 4, number 2, June 1981, pages 125-151.
Stephen King-Hall, Defence in the Nuclear Age (London: Victor Gollancz, 1958).
Theodore Olson and Gordon Christiansen, Thirty-One Hours (Toronto: Canadian Friends Service Committee, 1966).
Adam Roberts (editor), The Strategy of Civilian Defence: Non-violent Resistance to Aggression (London: Faber and Faber, 1967).
Adam Roberts, 'Civil resistance to military coups,' Journal of Peace Research, volume 12, number 1, 1975, pages 19-36.
Gene Sharp, Social Power and Political Freedom (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1980).
For me, the most stimulating of these have been Roberts (1967), Boserup and Mack, and Galtung.
On nonviolent action generally see:
Robert Cooney and Helen Michalowski (editors), The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States (Culver City, California: The Power of the People Publishing Project, 1977), which includes a massive bibliography.
Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973). This is the classic documentation of methods of nonviolent action and of the theory underlying the effectiveness of this action. Knowledge of the types and experiences with nonviolent action is essential for nonviolent social activists, but the power theory presented by Sharp is more dubious. Sharp focusses on the acceptance or acquiescence by populations to ruling groups, implying an approach to social change by the exercise of willpower. He provides little insight into the social structures linked with violence and oppression. Sharp's theory of power has been very influential in the nonviolent action movement, without sufficient critical examination. The Politics of Nonviolent Action needs to be supplemented by an incisive analysis of social structures.
A practical handbook for sabotaging environmentally destructive development (with no violence against people) is Dave Foreman and Bill Haywood (editors), Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching (Tucson: Earth First! Books, second edition, 1987).
On the Cruise Missile Conversion Project see MacLean Wells, 'Group politics, class politics, and the peace movement,' Our Generation, volume 15, number 1, Winter 1982, pages 29-32.
On peace conversion see Positive Alternatives, 222C View Street, Mountain View CA 94041-1344, USA.
On the Lucas initiatives see Hilary Wainwright and Dave Elliott, The Lucas Plan: A New Trade Unionism in the Making? (London: Allison and Busby, 1982).
Mentioned:
John Burnheim, Is Democracy Possible? The Alternative to Electoral Politics (London: Polity Press, 1985).
Jane J. Mansbridge, Beyond Adversary Democracy (New York: Basic Books, 1980).
On self-management and struggles towards it see:
Benjamin R. Barber, Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984): the case against liberal democracy and for greater citizen participation.
C. George Benello and Dimitrios Roussopoulos (editors), The Case for Participatory Democracy: Some Prospects For a Radical Society (New York: Grossman, 1971).
Carl Boggs, 'Marxism, prefigurative communism, and the problem of workers' control,' Radical America, volume 11 number 6 - volume 12 number 1, November 1977 - February 1978, pages 99-122: a good summary of self-management as a strategy, with a critique of important historical episodes.
Daniel Guérin, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970): a short and to-the-point case for anarchism, building on historical examples.
Ph. G. Herbst, Alternatives to Hierarchies (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976): a treatment of possibilities for networks and other horizontal organising principles.
Detlef Kantowsky, Sarvodaya: The Other Development (New Delhi: Vikas, 1980): description and analysis of the modern Gandhian movements for constructive village development in India and Sri Lanka.
Staughton Lynd and Gar Alperovitz, Strategy and Program: Two Essays Toward a New American Socialism (Boston: Beacon, 1973).
David Morris and Karl Hess, Neighborhood Power: The New Localism (Boston: Beacon, 1975): description of efforts towards and possibilities for neighbourhood self-management.
Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1973): the case for self-management.
On the superiority of cooperation over competition see Alfie Kohn, No Contest: The Case Against Competition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986).
On the Upper Clyde experience and work-ins see Ken Coates, Work-ins, Sit-ins and Industrial Democracy: The Implications of Factory Occupations in Great Britain in the Early 'Seventies (Nottingham: Spokesman, 1981).
On defence in Yugoslavia see Adam Roberts, Nations in Arms: The Theory of Territorial Resistance (London: Chatto and Windus, 1976).
On cooperatives see Jenny Thornley, Workers' Co-operatives: Jobs and Dreams (London: Heinemann, 1981).
Mentioned:
Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (New York: Vintage, 1979). This is an important work relevant to social action of all kinds.
See also:
Dave Dellinger, More Power than We Know: The People's Movement towards Democracy (Garden City: Anchor, 1975): experiences and insights from a long-time revolutionary about movement tactics, strategy, organisation and nonviolence.
Peter Hain, Radical Regeneration (London: Quartet, 1975): a readable account covering direct action, protest and community politics as the bases for moving towards participatory democracy.
Brian Martin, 'Environmentalism and electoralism,' Ecologist, volume 14, number 3, 1984, pages 110-118: on the demobilising effects of election campaigning on nuclear power and southwest Tasmania.
Stephen Vogel, 'The limits of protest: a critique of the anti-nuclear movement,' Socialist Review, number 54, November-December 1980, pages 125-134: on the limitations of civil disobedience (his conclusion supporting referenda has its own limitations).
Nigel Young, 'Why peace movements fail,' Social Alternatives, volume 4, number 1, March 1984, pages 9-16.
Mentioned:
John Breuilly, Nationalism and the State (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1982).
Benjamin Ginsberg, The Consequences of Consent: Elections, Citizen Control and Popular Acquiescence (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1982).
Leo Kuper, Genocide (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981).
Robert Nisbet, Twilight of Authority (London: Heinemann, 1976).
Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979): social revolution depends not only on class conflict by also vitally on the structure of state organisations and their relation to domestic class and political forces, and to their position with respect to other states.
On state mobilisation of local participation see Peter Hain, Neighbourhood Participation (London: Maurice Temple Smith, 1980).
On the anarchist critique of the state see for example Michael Bakunin, Bakunin on Anarchy (edited by Sam Dolgoff) (New York: Vintage, 1971); P. A. Kropotkin, 'The state: its historic role,' in Selected Writings on Anarchism and Revolution (edited by Martin A. Miller) (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1970), pages 210-264.
On globalism see for example Richard Falk, A Study of Future Worlds (New York: Free Press, 1975); Johan Galtung, The True Worlds: A Transnational Perspective (New York: Free Press, 1980).
On the state see also:
Harold Barclay, People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchism (London: Kahn & Averill with Cienfuegos Press, 1982): examination of societies without a state.
Bertrand de Jouvenel, Power: The Natural History of its Growth (London: Hutchinson, 1948): an analysis of the state (called 'Power' by de Jouvenel), especially its relation to war and previous social formations.
Frances Kendall and Leon Louw, After Apartheid: The Solution for South Africa (San Francisco: ICS Press, 1987): a libertarian analysis of South Africa's problems, with a Swiss-style canton system as the proposed solution.
Ralph Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969): an insightful Marxist treatment.
Franz Schurmann, The Logic of World Power: An Inquiry into the Origins, Currents, and Contradictions of World Politics (New York: Pantheon, 1974): an analysis of the interplay of ideology and bureaucracy in the dynamics of the state and the military.
Nigel Young, 'Transnationalism and communalism,' Gandhi Marg, number 52, July 1983, pages 191-208: insights about the types of groups most likely to transcend state frameworks, and about the role of war resistance in challenging the state.
Mentioned:
Fred Emery and Einar Thorsrud, Democracy at Work (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976).
André Gorz, 'Workers' control is more than just that,' in: Gerry Hunnius, G. David Garson and John Case (editors), Workers' Control: A Reader on Labor and Social Change (New York: Vintage, 1973).
Henry Jacoby, The Bureaucratization of the World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).
Stephen Marglin, 'What do bosses do? The origins and functions of hierarchy in capitalist production,' Review of Radical Political Economics, volume 6, number 2, Summer 1974, pages 60-112.
James Robertson, The Sane Alternative: A Choice of Futures (St Paul, Minnesota: River Basin, 1980).
Deena Weinstein, Bureaucratic Opposition: Challenging Abuses at the Workplace (New York: Pergamon Press, 1979).
Trevor A. Williams, Learning to Manage Our Futures: Participative Redesign of Societies in Turbulent Transition (New York: Wiley, 1982).
Ferdynand Zweig, 'The art and technique of interviewing,' in The Quest for Fellowship (London: Heinemann, 1965), pages 244-255.
Mentioned:
Stanislav Andreski, Military Organization and Society (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968).
Katherine Chorley, Armies and the Art of Revolution (London: Faber and Faber, 1943).
Martin Oppenheimer, The Urban Guerilla (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1969).
Lawrence B. Radine, The Taming of the Troops: Social Control in the United States Army (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 1977).
D. E. H. Russell, Rebellion. Revolution. and Armed Force: A Comparative Study of Fifteen Countries with Special Emphasis on Cuba and South Africa (New York: Academic, 1974).
Ellen Kay Trimberger, Revolution from Above: Military Bureaucrats and Development in Japan, Turkey, Egypt, and Peru (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1978).
See also:
Bengt Abrahamsson, Military Professionalization and Political Power (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1972): on the processes creating military organisations and beliefs.
Carol Ackroyd, Karen Margolis, Jonathan Rosenhead and Tim Shallice, The Technology of Political Control (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1977).
Gene Keyes, 'Force without firepower: a doctrine of unarmed military service,' CoEvolution Quarterly, number 34, Summer 1982, pages 4-25: roles for nonviolent military forces. A 2014 version of this article is titled To Give Life: A Nonkilling Military. Precedents and Possibilities, http://www.genekeyes.com/To-Give-Life.html.
Robert Nisbet, The Social Philosophers: Community and Conflict in Western Thought (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1973): spells out the links between the military and other fundamental features of Western society.
Peter Tatchell, Democratic Defence: A Non-nuclear Alternative (London: GMP Publishers, 1985): includes useful discussions of popular defence and radicalism in the armed forces.
Jack Woddis, Armies and Politics (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1977): insights about political organising in relation to military forces.
Mentioned:
Cynthia Enloe, Does Khaki Become You? The Militarisation of Women's Lives (London: Pluto, 1983).
See also:
Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976): many examples of the extent of rape, and a speculative argument that rape is the origin of male domination.
Wendy Chapkis (editor), Loaded Questions: Women in the Military (Amsterdam/Washington, DC: Transnational Institute, 1981).
Pam McAllister (editor), Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1982).
Betty A. Reardon, Sexism and the War System (New York: Teachers College Press, 1985): an argument for a feminist world order perspective.
Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism (London: Merlin, 1979): on the importance of feminist insights for the organisational features of the socialist movement.
Lydia Sargent (editor), Women and Revolution: A Discussion of the Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism (Boston: South End Press, 1980): a range of views on the relationship between patriarchy and capitalism.
Portions of this chapter are adapted from a paper of mine published in Arthur Birch (editor), Science Research in Australia: Who Benefits? (Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, 1983), pages 101-108.
Godfrey Boyle, Peter Harper and the editors of Undercurrents (editors), Radical Technology (London: Wildwood House, 1976): an excellent treatment of alternative technology and its social and political implications.
David Dickson, Alternative Technology and the Politics of Technical Change (London: Fontana, 1974): a penetrating analysis of the effect of political and economic structures on technological development, including insights about the limitations of the way alternative technology typically has been introduced in the Third World.
David Dickson, The New Politics of Science (New York: Pantheon, 1984): the takeover of science in the United States by corporations.
Brian Martin, 'The goal of self-managed science: implications for action,' Radical Science Journal, number 10, 1980, pages 3-17.
Maurice Pearton, The Knowledgeable State: Diplomacy, War and Technology Since 1830 (London: Burnett Books, 1982): how the state has become more dependent on knowledge and technology.
Radical Science Journal, London (now ceased publication): critiques of science, especially of the common left view of science as inherently progressive.
Hilary Rose and Steven Rose (editors), The Political Economy of Science and The Radicalisation of Science (London: Macmillan, 1976): critiques of science as serving profit and social control under capitalism.
Science for the People, Cambridge, Massachusetts (now ceased publication): a magazine with consistently excellent articles on science as serving profit and social control under capitalism.
Mentioned:
Stephen King-Hall, Defence in the Nuclear Age (London: Victor Gollancz, 1958).
Étienne de La Boétie, Anti-Dictator (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942).
Charles Levinson, Vodka Cola (London: Gordon and Cremonesi, 1979).
Iván Szelényi, 'Socialist opposition in Eastern Europe: dilemmas and prospects,' in: Rudolf L. Tökés (editor), Opposition in Eastern Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979), pages 187-208.
J. M. Zube, An A.B.C. Against Nuclear War (Berrima: J. M. Zube, 1975): this and many other libertarian works by Zube and others are available from John Zube, PO Box 52, Berrima NSW 2577, Australia.
See also:
Rudolf Bahro, The Alternative in Eastern Europe (London: NLB, 1978): a critique of 'actually existing socialism' and presentation of a perspective on a cultural revolution.
Chris Harman, Class Struggles in Eastern Europe, 1945-1983 (London: Pluto Press, 1983): examination of working class revolts from a Trotskyist perspective seeing Eastern societies as 'state capitalist.'
David Holloway, The Soviet Union and the Arms Race (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983): an analysis of the Soviet military's role internationally and domestically.
George Konrád and Iván Szelényi, Intellectuals on the Road to Class Power (Brighton: Harvester, 1979): a valuable study of the role of intellectuals in society, and especially the Eastern European intelligentsia's rise to power.
Martin Shaw, Socialism and Militarism (Nottingham: Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Spokesman Pamphlet 74, no date, about 1981): an attempt to establish the existence of a Marxist antimilitarist tradition.
Mentioned:
Leopold Kohr, The Breakdown of Nations (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1957).
Kirkpatrick Sale, Human Scale (New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1980).
On capitalism and militarism see:
Carolyn Eisenberg, 'New Left writers and the nuclear arms race,' Radical History Review, volume 33, 1985, pages 61-90: an excellent critique and a revised left-style formulation.
Paul Joseph, Cracks in the Empire: State Politics in the Vietnam War (Boston: South End Press, 1981): an analysis of US state decision-making over the Vietnam war, trying to establish a perspective in which the state reflects the interests of capitalism.
Karl Liebknecht, Militarism and Anti-militarism (New York: Dover, 1972): a classic analysis of militarism as a form of political-economic domination.
Martin Shaw (editor), War, State and Society (London: Macmillan, 1984), especially Michael Mann, 'Capitalism and militarism,' pages 25-46.
On industrialisation see:
Rudolf Bahro, Socialism and Survival (London: Heretic Books, 1982).
On individuals and violence see:
Jeffrey H. Goldstein, Aggression and Crimes of Violence (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975): a survey of the literature on psychology and violence.
Alice Miller, For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Childrearing and the Roots of Violence (London: Faber and Faber, 1983; translated from the German by Hildegarde and Hunter Hannum): argues that preventing children from expressing their emotions (especially anger from being beaten) leads to violence later in life.
Ashley Montagu, The Nature of Human Aggression (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976): the argument that human aggression is of social rather than genetic origins.
My views on the political consequences of nuclear war, and the need for political preparation, which have been omitted from this edition, are presented in my papers 'Critique of nuclear extinction,' Journal of Peace Research, volume 19, number 4, 1982, pages 287-300; 'How the peace movement should be preparing for nuclear war,' Bulletin of Peace Proposals, volume 13, number 2, June 1982, pages 149-159; 'Nuclear winter: science and politics,' Science and Public Policy, volume 15, number 5, October 1988, pages 321-334.