Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals

By Saul D. Alinsky

Book Overview

"This country's leading hell-raiser" (The Nation) shares his impassioned counsel to young radicals on how to effect constructive social change and know "the difference between being a realistic radical and being a rhetorical one."

"A superlative organizer, strategist, and tactician who is also a social philosopher." --Charles E. Silberman

First published in 1971 and written in the midst of radical political developments whose direction Alinsky was one of the first to question, this volume exhibits his style at its best. Like Thomas Paine before him, Alinsky was able to combine, both in his person and his writing, the intensity of political engagement with an absolute insistence on rational political discourse and adherence to the American democratic tradition.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679721134
• ISBN13: 9780679721130
• Release Date: October 1989
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Evil but instructive

This is a very troubling book. He quotes himself saying that at least Satan won himself a kingdom. His third rule of ethics is that the end justifies the means. His 4th rule of tactics is to kill the enemy by making them live up to their rules. All this while he believes activists can violate ethics. This is definitely a work of evil and it is no wonder America is what it is now. Yet, it is instructive. It teaches you how to be evil.