Recensori in anteprimaMark Kurlansky

"Callin' out around the world, are you read for a brand new beat?" Can a song change a nation? In 1964, Marvin Gaye, record producer William Mickey Stevenson and Motown song writer Ivy Jo Hunter wrote “Dancing in the Street.” The song was recorded at Motown’s Hitsville USA Studio by Martha and the Vandellas, with lead singer Martha Reeves arranging her own vocals. Released on July 21, the song was supposed to be an upbeat dance recording – a precursor to disco, some said, simply about the joyousness of dance. But events overtook it, and the song became one of the icons of American pop culture. The Beatles had landed in the US in early 1964. By the summer, the '60s were in full swing. The summer of 1964 was the Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, the beginning of the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Act, and the lead-up to a dramatic election. As the country grew more radicalized in those few months, "Dancing in the Street" gained currency as an activist anthem. The Black Panther party played it at their rallies; radio stations refused to play it. The song took on new meanings, multiple meanings, for many different groups that were all changing as the country changed. Told by the writer who is legendary for finding the big story in unlikely places, Dancing in the Streets recounts the history of those few extraordinary months in 1964 and showcases the role that a simple song about dancing played in developing those months’ story – how said song changed America and foretold its history, changing the lives of the musicians who sang it and the studio that produced it. It is a book about the intersection of popular culture and politics. There are still those who insist it is just a song about enjoying summer. But its role in history is undeniable. "This is an invitation, across the nation"

In this timely, highly original, and controversial narrative, New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky discusses nonviolence as a distinct entity, a course of action, rather than a mere state of mind. Nonviolence can and should be a technique for overcoming social injustice and ending wars, he asserts, which is why it is the preferred method of those who speak truth to power. Nonviolence is a sweeping yet concise history that moves from ancient Hindu times to present-day conflicts raging in the Middle East and elsewhere. Kurlansky also brings into focus just why nonviolence is a “dangerous” idea, and asks such provocative questions as: Is there such a thing as a “just war”? Could nonviolence have worked against even the most evil regimes in history? Kurlansky draws from history twenty-five provocative lessons on the subject that we can use to effect change today. He shows how, time and again, violence is used to suppress nonviolence and its practitioners–Gandhi and Martin Luther King, for example; that the stated deterrence value of standing national armies and huge weapons arsenals is, at best, negligible; and, encouragingly, that much of the hard work necessary to begin a movement to end war is already complete. It simply needs to be embraced and accelerated. Engaging, scholarly, and brilliantly reasoned, Nonviolence is a work that compels readers to look at history in an entirely new way. This is not just a manifesto for our times but a trailblazing book whose time has come.