Sean Scalmer is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Historical Studies, University of Melbourne. He is author of two books on the history of social movements - Dissent Events: Protest, the Media, and the Political Gimmick in Australia (2002) and The Little History of Australian Unionism (2006). He is also co-author with Sarah Maddison of Activist Wisdom: Practical Knowledge and Creative Tension in Social Movements and co-editor with Stuart Macintyre of What If? Australian History as It Might Have Been (2006).

• Introduction; 1. Meeting the Mahatma; 2. Gandhism in action; 3. At war over words; 4. Waiting for the peace train; 5. The experimenters; 6. An idea whose time has come?; 7. Transformations unforeseen; Conclusion.

'There are many books available on Gandhi, perhaps too many. Very often they add little to the existing literature and are not particularly well written. Scalmer is providing something genuinely new through his analysis of Gandhi and the Mahatma's impact on the rise of radical protest in the West through the framework of globalization. And his writing, while incredibly well informed (and documented), is accessible - in fact it can be read as a ripping good yarn.' Thomas Weber, La Trobe University