Brilliant theorist of non-violent social change or Cold War defense intellectual and strategist? Gene Sharp has had a tremendous influence on progressive ideas and activism since the early 1970s and his ideas are so pervasive that at times they appear to be without a history, just part of the air we breath on the left. Scholar Marcie Smith aims to place Sharp back in his political context, taking his ideas seriously, and seriously questioning them.
Resources:
Marcie Smith, “Change Agent: Gene Sharp’s Neoliberal Nonviolence Part I” Nonsite, #28
Marcie Smith, “Change Agent: Gene Sharp’s Neoliberal Nonviolence Part II” Nonsite, #30