The following books (organized alphabetically by author's family name) offer useful resources on strategic nonviolence, resisting authoritarianism, and expanding popular democracy. I don't necessarily agree with everything they write or their overall political orientation, but I share broad agreement with their opposition to anti-democratic political tendencies:
- Civil Resistance Tactics in the 21st Century - Michael Beer - https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/civil-resistance-tactics-in-the-21st-century/ | (downloadable PDF)
- (Re)Imagining Change - Doyle Canning and Patrick Reinsborough (2nd edition; 2017) (first edition available as a downloadable PDF)
- Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict - By Erica Chenoweth and Maura Stephan (downloadable PDF)
- This is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century - Mark Engler and Paul Engler (2016) (they also maintain a website, related to the book: https://thisisanuprising.org/)
- How to Dismantle a Dictatorship - Heather Marsh (July 2025) (self promoted here)
- Stigmergy: How to Create a Mass Movement - Heather Marsh (March 2025)
- The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People - By Jonathan Schell (2003)
- From Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation - Gene Sharp (1994)
- The Politics of Nonviolent Action - Gene Sharp (1973);
- Book 1: Power and Struggle (downloadable PDF)
- Book 2: The Methods of Nonviolent Action (downloadable PDF)
- Book 3: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action (downloadable PDF)
- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century - Timothy Snyder (2017) (Downloadable PDF)
- The Art of War - Sun Tzu (ca 5th Century BCE) (downloadable PDF)
Note: This is work in progress. links to additional relevant books will be added when I encounter them. If you have suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me (link, below, in the footer).
Last Updated - January 3, 2026