Richard Gregg (social philosopher)

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, ^[1] Aldous Huxley, ^[2] civil-rights theorist Bayard Rustin, ^[3] and pacifist and socialist reformer Jessie Wallace Hughan.^[4] Gregg's ideas also influenced the Peace Pledge Union in 1930s Britain,^[5] although by 1937 most of the PPU had moved away from Gregg's ideas.^[6]

After graduating from Harvard, Gregg sailed to India on January 1, 1925 to learn about Indian culture and to seek out Gandhi.^[7] 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's 1939 pamphlet Pacifist Program in time of war: threatened war, or fascism was a program detailing how American pacifists could use non-violence to oppose war and fascism in the United States.^[8] In the 1940s Gregg became interested in ecology and organic farming, and spent several years living on a farm owned by Scott and Helen Nearing. ^[9] 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).

1. Ansbro, John J. (1982). Martin Luther King, Jr: The Making of a Mind. Orbis Books. pp. 146-7, 149.
2. Huxley, Aldous and Baker Robert S.(ed.) (2002). Complete Essays, 1936-1938. Volume 4. I.R. Dee. pp. 240, 248. See also the reference to Gregg's The Power of Non-Violence in Huxley's Ends and Means (1937).
3. Kosek, Joseph Kip. Richard Gregg,Mohandas Gandhi, and the Strategy of Nonviolence
4. Bennett, Scott H. Radical Pacifism: the War Resisters League and Gandhian nonviolence in America, 1915-1963, Syracuse University Press, 2003, p. 47.
5. Ceadel, Martin (1980). Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945: The Defining of a Faith. Clarendon Press. pp. 250-257.
6. Ceadel, p. 256.
7. Richard Gregg, Mohandas Gandhi, and the Strategy of Nonviolence
8. Lynd, Staughton. Nonviolence in America: a documentary history, Bobbs-Merrill, 1966, (pp. 271-296 reprint part of Gregg's pamphlet).
9. Kosek, Joseph Kip.(2009) Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern American Democracy Columbia University Press. pp. 224.

External links

• Biography of Richard B. Gregg
• Bibliography of Richard B. Gregg
• The Value of Voluntary Simplicity
• Greggs's The Power of Nonviolence with King's introduction
• Discussion of Gregg's Power of Non-Violence
• Memorial Commentary on Richard B. Gregg (pdf)
• Richard Gregg materials in the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
• Finding aid to the Richard Bartlett Gregg papers at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries