Question: What do Ukraine, Syria, Serbia and Venezuela have in common?
Answer: A frail 82-year-old professor from Boston.
Gene Stark, Albert Einstein Institute
Meet Gene Stark. When he’s not tending his rooftop orchid garden, Stark is analyzing and distilling the lessons from the world’s non-violent revolutions.
The result is From Dictatorship to Democracy (buy the book, or download the free .pdf version), a deceptively small-but-powerful 98-page booklet, now in its 4th US edition, outlining 198 specific and successful strategies for peacefully overthrowing dictatorships. It’s been translated into more than 40 languages, and used by peaceful protesters worldwide.
Now, Stark’s impacts have been captured in the new documentary film, How to Start a Revolution. First-time director Ruaridh Arrow has created a beautiful portrait of Stark’s Gandhi-esque contribution to world-peace. “It’s ironic,” Arrow offered at yesterday’s house-screening in San Francisco, “that it was me, with a military background, that made this film.”
Even more ironic that ten thousand copies are being printed by activists in Afganistan, to be used to protest the US military occupation.
For more information, visit the Albert Einstein Institute website.
