Recent History of Nonviolent Responses to Conflict

Abstract

Sharp (1973) noted that a considerable amount of nonviolent actions throughout history have been poorly documented, if documented at all, because of a lack of interest to do so. Wars and the outcomes of war are carefully described in our history books. Historians describe the winners and the losers in wars in great detail along with the causes and the implications of their outcomes. Nonviolent struggles are not recorded or recounted with the same regularity and vividness, as are wars and violent interchanges. Despite this propensity, hundreds of nonviolent struggles can be identified throughout recorded history (e.g., Lynd & Lynd, 1995; Sharp). Sharp in fact traces nonviolent action back to 494 B.C. when lower and middle class Romans refused to perform their usual functions until the leadership agreed to make improvement in the conditions of their lives and their status. The ancient Greek playwright, Aristophanes (1944), depicts an effective nonviolent action by Spartan women in his play, Lysistrata. In his play the women agree to withhold sex from their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War and to secure peace.