Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1969. First Edition. First Printing. good, good. 474, notes, references, index, front DJ flap price clipped, DJ somewhat worn and soiled. It is important to consider this work in the context of the time of publication--the height of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War protests. Erikson was one of the most influential leaders in psychoanalysis and human development in the mid-20th century. In order to elucidate the nature of what Gandhi called his Truth in Action, Erikson sets out to retell in great detail a relatively little-known event in Gandhi's middle years, namely, his assumption of leadership in a strike of textile workers in the cityh of Ahmedabad in 1918. He explains Gandhi's method of concentrating on local grievances of high symbolic value as a way of mobilizing the Indian masses both spiritually and politically. Includes interviews with eyewitnesses.