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Marshall Rosenberg’s family moved to a Detroit neighborhood one week before the 1943 race riot that killed 34 people, and he spent the rest of his childhood absorbing both that violence and the antisemitism directed at his own family. He turned that early exposure into a lifelong question: what actually causes people to hurt each other, and what would it take to communicate in a way that didn’t. After a PhD in clinical psychology under Carl Rogers at the University of Wisconsin, he spent the 1960s developing what would become Nonviolent Communication through school integration projects, then founded the Center for Nonviolent Communication in 1984. Over the following three decades he trained people in more than 60 countries, from prison officials to warring villages, and wrote fifteen books distilling the same core method. He died at home in Albuquerque in 2015, at 80.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 books · Communication & Psychology · Nonviolent Communication · Communication · Relationships · Psychology · Updated July 2026
- #1 Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
- #5 Speak Peace in a World of Conflict
- #9 The Surprising Purpose of Anger
CommunicationCore book
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
Rosenberg’s foundational text lays out his four-part process for communication built on observation, feelings, needs, and requests, arguing that most everyday conflict comes from language soaked in judgment, blame, and demand rather than honest expression. The book has sold more than seven million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 40 languages.
This is the book everything else in his bibliography extends or applies to a specific context — parenting, anger, spirituality, conflict resolution. Start here before any of the others.
Parenting & Education
Raising Children Compassionately
A short guide applying Nonviolent Communication principles specifically to parent-child relationships, focused on connecting with children’s feelings and needs rather than relying on reward, punishment, or authority to shape behavior.
One of his earliest applied texts, predating the main Nonviolent Communication book by several years and showing how the framework was already being tested in family settings.
Education
Life-Enriching Education
Applies Nonviolent Communication to classroom settings, arguing that schools structured around compassionate connection rather than compliance and grading produce better academic performance, fewer conflicts, and stronger relationships between students and teachers.
Useful specifically for educators — it takes the core NVC framework and translates it into concrete classroom practices rather than general life philosophy.
Workbook
Nonviolent Communication Companion Workbook
A structured companion to the main Nonviolent Communication book, with exercises, role-plays, and practice scenarios designed to help readers move from understanding the four-part process intellectually to actually using it in real conversations.
Read this alongside the main book rather than instead of it — it’s designed as a practice tool, not a standalone introduction to the ideas.
Conflict ResolutionCore book
Speak Peace in a World of Conflict
Applies Nonviolent Communication to large-scale and political conflict, drawing on Rosenberg’s own experience mediating in war zones and deeply divided communities, and arguing that the same core skills that repair a personal relationship can, at scale, reduce violence between groups and nations.
The clearest bridge between Rosenberg’s interpersonal communication work and his broader mission as a peacemaker — useful if you want to see the framework applied beyond individual relationships.
Relationships
Being Me, Loving You
A short guide to applying Nonviolent Communication in romantic relationships, focused on maintaining honest self-expression and individual needs without losing connection to a partner.
One of several short, single-topic books in his catalog — useful as a focused companion if relationships specifically, rather than communication in general, are what you’re working on.
Spirituality
Practical Spirituality
Explores the spiritual foundations underlying Nonviolent Communication, drawing on Rosenberg’s study of comparative religion and arguing that the practice is, at its core, a spiritual discipline of connecting with the humanity in oneself and others.
Useful for readers who want to understand Nonviolent Communication as more than a communication technique — Rosenberg saw it as inseparable from a broader spiritual worldview.
Relationships
Getting Past the Pain Between Us
Addresses reconciliation and healing after conflict or hurt in relationships, offering practices for both parties to move past resentment toward genuine repair rather than surface-level forgiveness.
A useful follow-up to Getting Past conflict in the moment — this one is specifically about what comes after, when a relationship needs to heal rather than just de-escalate.
Emotional WellbeingCore book
The Surprising Purpose of Anger
Argues that anger is not something to suppress or manage away but a signal pointing toward an unmet need, and that fully expressing anger honestly, once its underlying need is identified, is more constructive than either venting or bottling it up.
One of the more distinctive ideas in Rosenberg’s body of work — a direct challenge to conventional anger-management advice, worth reading even if you’ve already read the main Nonviolent Communication book.
Parenting
Parenting from Your Heart
A short guide to parenting through Nonviolent Communication principles, emphasizing connection with a child’s needs over control, punishment, or conditional approval.
A more concise companion to Raising Children Compassionately, useful as a quick-reference guide rather than a full treatment of the subject.
Conflict Resolution
We Can Work It Out
Focuses specifically on resolving conflict between two people, walking through the practical steps of applying Nonviolent Communication when a disagreement has already escalated rather than as a preventive practice.
A practical, situation-specific guide — useful if you’re in an active conflict right now rather than looking for a general introduction to the philosophy.
Education
Teaching Children Compassionately
A companion to Life-Enriching Education focused more specifically on classroom facilitation and teacher training, drawing on Rosenberg’s own experience running Nonviolent Communication workshops for educators.
Read alongside Life-Enriching Education if you’re an educator wanting both the broader philosophy and more specific facilitation guidance.
Communication
Living Nonviolent Communication: Practical Tools to Connect and Communicate Skillfully in Every Situation
Published posthumously in its final form, this book compiles practical tools and case examples for applying Nonviolent Communication across a wide range of everyday situations, from family life to workplace conflict.
A useful later-career synthesis if you’ve already read the main Nonviolent Communication book and want more varied, concrete examples rather than a new theoretical framework.
Where to start with Marshall Rosenberg
If you have never read him
→ Start with Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. It’s the foundational text everything else in his catalog builds from or applies to a specific context.
If you want the political and large-scale application
→ Speak Peace in a World of Conflict takes the same framework into war zones and deeply divided communities.
If a specific emotion or relationship is your entry point
→ The Surprising Purpose of Anger or Being Me, Loving You apply the core method to a single, focused situation.
If you’re a parent or educator
→ Raising Children Compassionately, Parenting from Your Heart, and Life-Enriching Education all translate the framework for family and classroom settings specifically.
If communication and connection are what you want more of generally
→ My books on nonviolent communication list and my best books on communication list both have more writers in this tradition.
Looking for what else I recommend
→ Every book I’ve personally reviewed lives on my bookshelf.
Frequently asked questions about Marshall Rosenberg’s books
More from the shelf
Reading list
Books on Nonviolent Communication
The tradition Rosenberg started.
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Best Books on Communication
Saying what you mean, better.
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Books About Relationships
How people actually stay connected.
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Best Psychology Books
The mind, examined.
On my shelf
My Bookshelf — Book Recommendations
Every book I have personally reviewed, in one place.
