ABSTRACT
Mahatma Gandhi never traveled to the United States, but his impact on American life has been substantial. Through his influence on generations of activists for peace and civil rights, Gandhi's spirit lives on as part of the American experience. Apple Computer used Gandhi in its "Think Different" advertising campaign, displaying his billboard image in cities all over the United States. During his stay in London for the roundtable conference, Gandhi met Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, and other cultural and literary figures. Gandhi was widely admired among progressive intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic, and his ideas made a great impression in universities and theological schools. He was one of the first to provide a systematic analysis of nonviolence, focusing on the psychological dynamics of nonviolent action as a creative and effective means of confronting oppression. One author claims that the idea of nonviolent resistance began with the Quakers and was finally put into action by Mahatma Gandhi.
