?Mohandus K. Gandi coined the term nonviolence, pioneered new modes of nonviolent resistance (satygraha), and evolved a coherent political philosophy that unconditionally repudiated any rationalization of war or ethical justification of systematic violence. Here his policies and precepts in relation to war and peace throughout his long and eventful career in South Africa and India are carefully examined. There are valuable insights into the shaping of the Mahatma's thinking (in particular, the influence of America's Thoreau and Russia's Tolstoy). Puri carefully analyzes Gandhi's views concerning a wide variety of factors and events that molded the course of history during the interwar years: the unfairness of the Varsailles Treaty, the inadequacies of the League of Nations, the continued oppression of colonial peoples and blacks in the US, the militancy of Mussolini's fascism and his shamefull conquest of Ethiopia, and the Nazi persecution of Jews. ... Puri's work is judicious, lucid, well documented, objective, and scholarly. It is a landmark study, a fine addition to the prolific literature on Gandhi.?-Choice