Reveille for Radicals

by Saul Alinsky

Overview

Legendary community organizer Saul Alinsky inspired a generation of activists and politicians with Reveille for Radicals, the original handbook for social change. Alinsky writes both practically and philosophically, never wavering from his belief that the American dream can only be achieved by an active democratic citizenship. First published in 1946 and updated in 1969 with a new introduction and afterword, this classic volume is a bold call to action that still resonates today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679721123
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/23/1989
Edition description:	Vintage Books ed
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.21(w) x 7.99(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Saul Alinsky was born in Chicago in 1909 and educated first in the streets of that city and then in its university. Graduate work at the University of Chicago in criminology introduced him to the Al Capone gang, and later to Joliet State Prison, where he studied prison life. He founded what is known today as the Alinsky ideology and Alinsky concepts of mass organization for power. His work in organizing the poor to fight for their rights as citizens has been internationally recognized. In the late 1930s he organized the Back of the Yards area in Chicago (the neighborhood made famous in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle). Subsequently, through the Industrial Areas Foundation which he began in 1940, Mr. Alinsky and his staff helped to organize communities not only in Chicago but throughout the country. He later turned his attentions to the middle class, creating a training institute for organizers. He died in 1972.

Table of Contents

Part I: Call Me Rebel
1. What is a Radical?
2. Where is the Radical Today?
3. The Crisis

Part II: The Building of People's Organizations
4. The Program
5. Native Leadership
6. Community Traditions and Organizations
7. Organizational Tactics
8. Conflict Tactics
9. Popular Education
10. Psychological Observations on Mass Organization
11. Reveille for Radicals

Afterword to the Vintage Edition

Editorial Reviews

Alinsky is that rarity in American life, a superlative organizer, strategist, and tactician who is also a social philosopher.”
—Charles E. Silberman

“He cannot be bought; he cannot be intimidated; and he breaks all the rules.”
—The Economist (London)

“I consider him to be one of the few really great men of our century.”
—Jacques Maritain

From the Publisher