We live amid escalating worldwide destruction and war. How do we make sense of it? In her enduring analysis of violence, Dr. Arendt points out that the glorification of violence is not restricted to a small minority of militants and extremists. The public revulsion for violence that followed World War II has dissipated, as have the nonviolent philosophies of the early civil-rights movement. How did this reversal come about? And where will it lead us? To answer these questions, Dr. Arendt puts theories about violence in historical perspective and reexamines the relationships between war and politics, violence and power. She questions the nature of violent behavior, points out the causes of its many manifestations, and ultimately argues against Mao Tse-tung's dictum "power grows out of the barrel of a gun," proposing instead that "power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent."