“What Sun Tzu and Clausewitz were to war, Sharp. . . was to nonviolent struggle―strategist, philosopher, guru.”― The New York Times The revolutionary word-of-mouth phenomenon, available for the first time as a trade book Twenty-one years ago, at a friend's request, a Massachusetts professor sketched out a blueprint for nonviolent resistance to repressive regimes. It would go on to be translated, photocopied, and handed from one activist to another, traveling from country to country across the globe: from Iran to Venezuela―where both countries consider Gene Sharp to be an enemy of the state―to Serbia; Afghanistan; Vietnam; the former Soviet Union; China; Nepal; and, more recently and notably, Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and Syria, where it has served as a guiding light of the Arab Spring. This short, pithy, inspiring, and extraordinarily clear guide to overthrowing a dictatorship by nonviolent means lists 198 specific methods to consider, depending on the circumstances: sit-ins, popular nonobedience, selective strikes, withdrawal of bank deposits, revenue refusal, walkouts, silence, and hunger strikes. From Dictatorship to Democracy is the remarkable work that has made the little-known Sharp into the world's most effective and sought-after analyst of resistance to authoritarian regimes. Praise for From Dictatorship to Democracy : "Not since Machiavelli has a book had such impact in shifting the balance of power” ― The The Times of London “Few Americans have heard of Dr. Sharp. But for decades, his practical writings on nonviolent revolution―most notably [his] guide to toppling autocrats―have inspired dissidents around the world, including Burma, Bosnia, Estonia and Zimbabwe, and now Tunisia and Egypt.” ― The New York Times “In June 2007, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez publicly accused Mr. Sharp of stirring unrest in Venezuela. . . . The target of all this intrigue and animosity is eighty years old and slightly stooped. He walks with a cane.” ― The Wall Street Journal “The man who changed the world.” ― The Boston Globe “Hailed as the manual by those who conducted people-power coups in Eastern Europe, its contents were no secret in Iran. . . . Officials saw this summer’s unrest as the fruit of his strategies.” ― The Christian Science Monitor Gene Sharp advised governments and resistance movements around the world and was considered the most influential living promoter of nonviolent resistance to autocratic governments. He was a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and the founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action. Sharp was the author of From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation (The New Press).