Political Action: A Practical Guide to Movement Politics

by Michael Walzer, Jon Wiener (Introduction), Michael Walzer (Preface by)

Overview

Political theorist Michael Walzer's classic guide is a perfect introduction to social activism, including what-to-do advice for deciding which issues to take on, organizing, fundraising, and providing effective leadership

Political Action is a how-to book for activists that was written at one of the darkest moments of the Nixon administration and remains no less timely and intelligent and useful today. Michael Walzer draws on his extensive engagement in the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s to lay out the practical steps necessary to keep movement politics alive both in victory and in defeat. What do people need to do when out of outrage or fear of looming disaster they come together to demand change? Should they focus on one or several issues? Should they form coalitions? What can and can’t be accomplished through electoral politics? How can movements operate democratically? What is effective leadership? Walzer addresses such questions with clarity, concision, wisdom, and wit in a book that everywhere insists not only on the centrality of movement politics to the health of democratic societies but on the deep satisfaction that is to be found there. Political Action is both an indispensable resource for activists and a lasting and inspiring summons to arms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681373539
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	02/26/2019
Pages:	120
Sales rank:	1,122,749
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Michael Walzer is a professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He served as the co-editor of the political journal Dissent for more than three decades and has written about a wide variety of topics in political theory and moral philosophy. His most recent book is A Foreign Policy for the Left.

Jon Wiener is the host and producer of Start Making Sense, The Nation’s weekly podcast, and a longtime contributing editor at The Nation. He is a professor emeritus of history at the University of California, Irvine, and his most recent book is How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America.

Editorial Reviews

Walzer’s how-to book for activists, reissued, feels newly relevant.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The idea of republishing this book came from some highschool students in Los Angeles. They were part of a social justice group at their school, and most of the projects they were contemplating involved organizing of some kind. To help them think about that, their faculty adviser, Mickey Morgan...photocopied parts of Political Action and handed it out. ‘This is really good!’ they told him. ‘This is what we need.’ What the kids said next became the impetus for this new edition: ‘Why is there nothing like this?’” —from the new introduction by Jon Wiener

“[W]hen much political commentary is either apocalyptic or cynical...it is a pleasure to come upon a book which reflects a sense of idealism along with a sense of strategy.” —from the original foreword by Senator Eugene McCarthy

"The reissue of a political action guidebook that has withstood the evolution of American government. Originally published in 1971 and preceding a prolific oeuvre of treatises and foreign policy critiques, Walzer's first political call to action resonates as much in today's tense, precarious climate as it did when the author originally crafted it...Throughout this brief, lucid guide, he illustrates the sequential steps necessary to become active in citizen politics...Walzer's potent manual validates protest movements of the past while underscoring the relevance of resistance initiatives in the contemporary political climate….an inspired political motivating tool and an erudite work of political food for thought. An authoritative master plan for forming effective, influential citizen activism.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Michael Walzer’s originality lies in his ability to extend the work of his precursors into new fields.” —John Murray Cuddihy, The New York Times  

“Michael Walzer [is] the unanointed dean of the American left.” —The Wall Street Journal
 
“[A] stable and prudent approach to political action.” —Virginia Quarterly Review
 
“[One]of the truly significant American political thinkers of our time.” —William A. Gaston,Political Theory

From the Publisher

2018-12-04

The reissue of a political action guidebook that has withstood the evolution of American government.

Originally published in 1971 and preceding a prolific oeuvre of treatises and foreign policy critiques, Walzer's (Emeritus, Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton; A Foreign Policy for the Left, 2018, etc.) first political call to action resonates as much in today's tense, precarious climate as it did when the author originally crafted it. Writing in the weeks just following the American invasion of Cambodia, the author drew ideas and inspiration from his experiences as a civil rights and anti-war activist. Throughout this brief, lucid guide, he illustrates the sequential steps necessary to become active in citizen politics, beginning with discovering a movement one is passionate about, finding support, and discovering an initiative that "belongs to its members, as do, for a time at least, the crucial decisions." While the author educates and instructs on the nuances of resistance movements, he also cautions readers against the dangers of hubris and avoiding the pitfalls of indulging in the "fantasies of social and political changes they cannot actually bring about." He poses key questions on whether movements should be single issue-oriented or represent a palette of special interests. The answers, viewed through Walzer's highly practical, intellectual lens, steer budding movements toward a single cause initially. He counsels readers on the importance of a movement projecting a "national image," lists the qualities inherent in an effective leader, the pros and cons of money raised and spent, strategic tactical political maneuvers, and how to cope with both internal and external conflict and antagonism. "Solidarity is a political tie," he writes, "subject to political strains." Ultimately, Walzer's potent manual validates protest movements of the past while underscoring the relevance of resistance initiatives in the contemporary political climate. With a new preface by the author and introduction by Nation contributing editor Jon Wiener, this remains an inspired political motivating tool and an erudite work of political food for thought.

An authoritative master plan for forming effective, influential citizen activism.

Kirkus Reviews