History of Human Struggle Re-Examined

For historians Gene Sharp's The Politics of Non-Violent Action is a disturbing book. Sharp suggests that there might be unwilling (or willing) accomplices to building and perpetuating the myth of violence as the 'only really significant form of combat.' (p 72) According to Sharp, not only have historians romanticized the more dramatic and heroic acts of violence for good causes, but also they have almost totally neglected the vast, impressive human history of non-violent struggle. By their choices, historians have influenced hos the past is viewed as well as how the present is lived.