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Tracing Roots Of Egypt's Protests To An American Advocate For Non-Violence

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Gene Sharp at his office in Boston with a photo of Gandhi at rear. (AP)
Political thinker Gene Sharp at his office in Boston with a photo of Gandhi at rear. (AP)

Leaders in Egypt's youth movement learned about non-violent resistance in part from social networking with protesters in Tunisia, and also through visits with activists who led Serbia's youth movement.

But as today's New York Times points out, all of the youth leaders drew from the ideas of American political thinker Gene Sharp. We listen back to our conversation with 82-year-old Gene Sharp, who runs the Albert Einstein Institution in Boston, Massachusetts.

Sharp's writing has inspired opposition movements around the world. His slender book, “From Dictatorship to Democracy,” has been translated into more than 30 languages. We revisit a conversation with Sharp about his work.

This segment aired on February 14, 2011.

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