Richard Bartlett Gregg (1885-1974) was an American social philosopher said to be "the first American to develop a substantial theory of nonviolent resistance" and an influence on the thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr and civil-rights theorist Bayard Rustin. [1].

Gregg traveled to India in the 1920s to learn about the culture and to seek out Gandhi. His publications include Gandhiji's Satyagraha or non-violent resistance, published in 1930, and The Power of Non-Violence, from 1934. His revision, The Power of Non-Violence (1960) included a foreword by King. The book was republished in several other editions, including a Swedish translation in 1936 (as Den nya maktfaktorn: motstånd utan våld). Gregg was also author of other books, including The Compass of Civilization, and the essay The Value of Voluntary Simplicity (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1936), a philosophical essay on the need and benefits of living more simply. He coined the term "voluntary simplicity".

References

• Kosek, Joseph Kip (March 2005). "Richard Gregg, Mohandas Gandhi, and the Strategy of Nonviolence". The Journal of American History 91 (4). 
• Fox, Richard G. (January/February 1998). "Passage from India: How Westerners Rewrote Gandhi's Message". Humanities (journal) 19 (1). 

External links

• Biography of Richard B. Gregg
• Bibliography of Richard B. Gregg
• The Value of Voluntary Simplicity (pdf)
• Greggs's The Power of Nonviolence with King's introduction
• Memorial Commentary on Richard B. Gregg (pdf)

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