If you're used to thinking about nonviolence as a set of lofty ideals, this project raises immediate questions: why would a military historian be interested?

It is a form of conflict, even with avowed non-violence from one side. And there's a lot of interest in asymmetric conflicts from the military side of things, so it makes sense as something to look into.

One theme that I did not anticipate is PTSD, or, as Ricks often terms it, combat stress. He devotes a substantial portion of the book to the question of what happens after a major operation, how survivors recover or fail to recover. I've seen echoes of the struggles Ricks describes among friends who were heavily involved in the Black Lives Matter protests. The questions he raises about how an organization might try to plan for the aftermath of a huge effort are important. Even in activist circles, I've generally heard this discussed in terms of individual burnout, rather than as a problem of collective support.

Good point, almost everyone I know from the disability rights protests against austerity in the 2010s is burnt out to greater or lesser degree.