Jonathan Schell

by Andrew Milner

Two decades ago, Jonathan Schell's The Fate of The Earth articulated the consequences of a nuclear war, and the book became a cornerstone of the 1980s nuclear freeze movement. Throughout the '80s, millions of ordinary Americans took to the streets in nonviolent anti-nuke protests, eventually forcing even a hawk like Reagan to sit down with the Soviets to sign arms reduction treaties.

It's that kind of collective action Schell focuses on in his new book, The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People (Metropolitan Books). Schell examines the effect of nonviolent action at home and abroad. The success of nonviolent action, from the struggle against British colonialism in India to the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union, "often surprised those who used it and always surprised those against whom it was used," Schell writes. Admittedly, nonviolence is an unpopular approach in the aftermath of 9/11, but Schell insists that "the days when humanity can hope to save itself from force with force are over," and that "none of the structures of violence can any longer rescue the world from the use of violence, now grown apocalyptic."

As out of step as The Unconquerable World seems in a Murdoch-dominated view of the world (How many other 400-plus-page books on international politics include an index entry on "love"?), Schell's suggestions for collective action are genuinely compelling: "In the mountainous slag heaps of 20th-century history, they are the flecks of gold that the 21st-century must sift out and put to use."

Jonathan Schell, Wed., May 28, 7 p.m., free, Blauvelt Theatre, Friends Select School, 17th St. and the Parkway, 215-561-5900.