Reddit mentions of Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means

Thanks for the recommendation. Three non-fiction books that I like that might appeal to others who enjoy HPMOR:

Influence, Robert Cialdini. This is like a handbook of ways that people may try to short circuit your rational thinking. And it is written well enough for casual reading, not totally textbook style. Favorite quotes:

• "[P]eople at the racetrack: Just after placing a bet, they are much more confident of their horse's chances than they are immediately before laying down the bet."
  
  
• "[I]t is apparent that good looking people enjoy enormous social advantage in our culture. They are better liked, more persuasive, more frequently helped, and seen as possessing better personality traits and intellectual capabilites" [i.e., why it is worth paying attention to your appearance]
  
  wikipedia amazon
  
  
  
  Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom, and Urgent Means, William Vollmann. The title pretty much explains it. Quote:
  
  
• "The simple law of might accords respect to an armed individual [...] another way of saying that security is a precondition for autonomy. One long-standing labor unionist and civil rights activist had to contend with the active hostility of American police. In a certain town, Ku Klux Klan recruiting posters adorned the police station. The activist recalls:
  "I am convinced that I'm alive today because I traveled with firearms -- and that this fact was generally known." "
  
  I enjoyed this book more for the "true facts" aspect of historical accounts of the use of violence than the attempt to create a moral calculus. I only have the abridged version.
  wikipedia amazon
  
  
  
  Bargaining For Advantage, G. Richard Shell. This is a straightforward pretty short (~250 page) book about bargaining/negotiation. It is about identifying the situation you are in, evaluating the other parties, evaluating your own tendencies (and if it might be better to delegate), and conducting the business. amazon

Other people have answered this in greater detail, and so I will simply recommend to you, OP, the book Rising Up, Rising Down by William Vollmann. It attempts to answer the question of whether there can be a moral calculus for determining when violence is/is not justifiable through the use of historical examples and case studies.