George Paxton

Nonviolent Resistance to the Nazis George Paxton

War is an extremely costly means of responding to conflict and yet nonviolent defence of a country is normally considered unrealistic because it is considered ineffectual against a ruthless opponent. This book tries to demonstrate otherwise by looking at historical facts focussing on the Nazi tyranny as a specific case. In reality, nonviolent resistance to the Third Reich took place in the occupied countries as well as in Germany itself. While not on a scale to bring down the regime its potential to do so is clearly demonstrated in in this well-argued account. More speculatively, the author looks at principled Gandhian nonviolence and asks if this approach would have affected the nature of the resistance.