From Dictatorship to Democracy - by Gene Sharp Paperback

Book Synopsis

For decades, Gene Sharp's From Dictatorship to Democracy has been a lifeline for movements seeking to challenge oppressive regimes without violence. The subject of a June 2025 column by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times regarding the contemporary relevance of Gene Sharp's ideas, the book has been quietly circulated by dissidents and organizers, translated into more than thirty languages, and used in uprisings from Serbia and Ukraine to Egypt and Venezuela.

Now available in a newly repackaged edition, From Dictatorship to Democracy speaks to the present moment. As authoritarianism gains ground globally and democratic institutions are threatened at home, a new generation of activists is looking for proven tools--not just inspiration, but instruction. With extraordinary clarity, Sharp lays out 198 methods of nonviolent resistance, from boycotts and strikes to symbolic protests and civil disobedience, adaptable to almost any political context.

This timeless and tactical handbook is both a field guide for organizing and a philosophical call to action and has been "hailed as the manual by those who conducted people-power coups" (The Christian Science Monitor). As movements today grow increasingly global, decentralized, and creative, From Dictatorship to Democracy remains essential reading--empowering a new wave of resistance with hard-earned insights from those who've come before.

Review Quotes

"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

About the Author

Gene Sharp (1928-2018) 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.