 | |
| Author | Saul Alinsky |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Dave Baker |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Grassroots, community organizing |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1971 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hard and paperback) |
| Pages | 196 pp |
| ISBN | 0-394-44341-1 |
| OCLC | 140535 |
| 301.5 | |
| LC Class | HN65 .A675 |
Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals is a 1971 book by American community activist and writer Saul D. Alinsky about how to successfully run a movement for change. It was the last book written by Alinsky, and it was published shortly before his death in 1972.[1]: 41 His goal was to create a guide for future community organizers, to use in uniting low-income communities, or "Have-Nots", in order for them to gain by any effective, non-violent means social, political, legal, environmental and economic wealth and power.[2] Inside of it, Alinsky compiled the lessons he had learned throughout his experiences of community organizing from 1939 to 1971. He targeted these lessons at the current, new generation of radicals.[3]
Divided into ten chapters, Rules for Radicals provides ten lessons on how a community organizer can accomplish the goal of successfully uniting people into an active grassroots organization with the power to affect change on a variety of issues. Though targeted at community organization, these chapters also touch on other issues that range from ethics, education, communication, and symbol construction and political philosophy.[4]
Although it was published for the new generation of counterculture-era organizers in 1971, Alinsky's principles have been applied by numerous government, labor, community, and congregation-based organizations, and the main themes of his organizational methods have been recurring elements in political campaigns into the 21st century.
- ^ McAlevey, Jane (2016). No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978019062471-2.
- ^ Alinsky, Saul (1971). Rules For Radicals. New York: Random House. p. 119. ISBN 0-679-72113-4.
- ^ Trolander, Judith Ann (1982). "Social Change: Settlement Houses and Saul Alinsky, 1939–1965". Social Service Review. 56 (3). University of Chicago Press: 346–65. doi:10.1086/644019. ISSN 1537-5404. JSTOR 30011558. S2CID 143661443.
- ^ Reitzes, Donald C.; Reitzes, Dietrich C. (1987). "Alinsky in the 1980s: Two Contemporary Chicago Community Organizations". The Sociological Quarterly. 28 (2). Midwest Sociological Society: 265–83. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.1987.tb00294.x. ISSN 1533-8525. JSTOR 4121434.