A Dozen Irresistible books on Resistance

by Keith Grint
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12 books
What follows is an eclectic mixture of non-fiction and fiction books that cover the general area of Resistance. Some are unequivocally academic in nature and orientation, but others are written for the general reader. The choice reflects my own journey through the field: some are classics, some from my very first forays into the literature, while the rest are more recent studies that I’ve found useful or enlightening for my own work. You could, of course, choose a completely different set of twelve books and secure some marvelous insights into the genre – but if you are new to the arena, then I would encourage you to start with these.
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A Stranger in Your Own City

Travels in the Middle East's Long War
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, 2023
There are not very many insider accounts of the Iraq War and subsequent resistance, so this book starts out with an advantage. But more than this perspective, the account is beautifully written and harrowing, not just in its detailed account but in the balance of the perspective and the searing honesty of the criticism of Western intentions, actions, and planning – or lack thereof. If I had to choose one book on the Iraq debacle, it would be this one.

Eichmann in Jerusalem

A Report on the Banality of Evil
Hannah Arendt, 2006
Now almost 75 years old, Arendt’s book on the trial of Eichmann in Jerusalem is an essential read for those interested in explaining the Holocaust and the mechanism used to avoid resistance by those responsible for it. It was as controversial then as it is now, but its focus on the way ‘ordinary’ people choose not to see or act in the face of existential horror remains an important piece of the jigsaw of horror perpetrated on the Jews.

The Myth of Sisyphus

Albert Camus, 2013
Another old classic, Camus’ retelling of the Myth of Sisyphus, provides a crucial reinterpretation of the power of resistance. In this case, although condemned to push a boulder up a hill, apparently forever, Sisyphus refuses to surrender to fatalism and portrays a level of resilience that serves as a beacon of hope for all those ground down by oppression or even just daily life.

The SAGE Handbook of Resistance

David Courpasson, Steven Vallas, 2016
A marvellous and contemporary collection of articles on resistance that should be the starting point for anyone interested in exploring the theory and practice of resistance. The coverage is wide, and the editors’ introduction is a great shortcut into the academic field. It would be difficult to enter the area of resistance without this.

Legacy of Violence

A History of the British Empire
Caroline Elkins, 2023
If there is a single book that encompasses such a searing and critical account of the British Empire and resistance to that, I’m not aware of it. It is a brilliant and stunning account of oppression embodied in imperial practices and the heroic attempts by many of those at the wrong end of the British Empire.

Black Spartacus

The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture
Sudhir Hazareesingh, 2020
There are very few historical examples where a single individual played such an important role in successfully resisting the imperial ambitions and enslaving intentions of the French, Spanish and British Empires. Hazareesingh’s account is an excellent reconstruction of the difficulties facing Toussaint Louverture and his mobilization of the people of Haiti against multiple oppressors.

An Enemy of the People

Henrik Ibsen, 1999
Ibsen’s play, written towards the end of the nineteenth century, is a masterpiece about facing one of the most uncomfortable elements of leadership: telling your potential followers in the resistance things that they do not want to hear. Ibsen’s play contrasts the consensus of the townspeople with the truth, as told by Dr Stockmann, the town’s doctor, and that the clash between truth and popularity is one that holds good across the globe today, especially in democratic countries.

The Gladiators

Arthur Koestler, 2011
Koestler’s novel about the revolt of the Roman gladiators led by Spartacus contains an array of moral traps that face many resistance leaders: whether the end justifies the means, whether resistance leaders have the coercive ability to keep the resistance on track, and whether that very authoritarian streak ultimately dooms all resistance movements to ‘eat their own children’. Given Koestler’s own struggles with Nazi Germany and the German Communist Party, we can see why his conclusion is pessimistic.

If This Is A Man/The Truce

Primo Levi, 2014
This is one of several of Primo Levi’s accounts of Auschwitz and his struggle both to resist and survive. It describes in detail the moral complexities of the camp and the way the authorities attempted to stamp out all resistance, but it also includes occasional flashes of human resilience that embodies precisely the approach taken by Sisyphus. Thus prisoners continue to try and shave and polish their shoes daily, despite knowing that such acts are of minimal utility in ensuring survival – but that isn’t always the point of resistance; sometimes it’s just to maintain some level of dignity in the face of appalling brutality.

Obedience to Authority

An Experimental View
Stanley Milgram, 2009
In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram undertook a series of experiments designed to establish why and how episodes like the Holocaust could have taken place and why so few people resisted. His work suggests that around two-thirds of us are reluctant to engage in acts of resistance if the task appears to be rational, if we are protected from personal responsibility for what happens, and if we engage in harm incrementally. For those readers who think such outrageous actions would not have happened in their country, this book is a salutary lesson.

The Bullet's Song

Romantic Violence and Utopia
William Pfaff, 2004
Resistance, like leadership, is often romanticized by its supporters, and Pfaff’s book provides a well-written and researched account of the danger of engaging in resistance where violence is either configured as a necessary but unfortunate requirement to remove oppression or even a cathartic requirement to rid the body politic of some nefarious group. Resistance is not necessarily or essentially good or immoral or bad and immoral; it just is.

Learning to Labor

How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs
Paul E. Willis, 1981
This ethnography is probably the book that led me to the study of resistance. The author followed a group of boys at a secondary school in England in the 1970s and traces how their resistance to school authority provides not just a shield of defence against the teachers but simultaneously reproduces the very working-class culture that led their fathers into low-paying and low-skilled jobs. In effect, these boys were not victims of the system but actively engaged in the construction of their own cultural cages.