Book Review: Violence and Nonviolence: Conceptual Excursions into Phantom Opposites

Authors

Rene McGraw OSB, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s UniversityFollow

Abstract

The reader is first struck by the immense bibliography of the author, Peyman Vahabzadeh. The author is well-acquainted with both the relevant peace studies literature and philosophy. In addition he has a section where he comments on two of Tolstoy’s short stories “Ezarhaddon of Assyria” and The Three Questions.”

The fundamental strength of this book is its character as a literature review of the topic from a philosophic perspective. Its fundamental weakness is its character as a literature review of the topic from a philosophic perspective. The book contains so many brilliant examples of people who have written and talked about violence and nonviolence that it is easy for the reader to get lost and neglect the overall thesis of the author.

Recommended Citation

McGraw OSB, Rene (2020) "Book Review: Violence and Nonviolence: Conceptual Excursions into Phantom Opposites," The Journal of Social Encounters: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, 81-84.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/social_encounters/vol4/iss1/11