Reveille for radicals

Democracy is a team sport! This well-written book draws on the author’s experience organizing communities in Chicago. Alinsky stresses the importance of obtaining buy-in from the various and disparate groups within a community, such as churches and labor unions, in order to effectively give the people a voice. His warning that democracy dies when people become apathetic and participate no further than voting is especially relevant today. Written in the 40s, with foreword and afterword added in 1969, the book offers the modern reader an interesting combination of contrasts and haunting familiarities. His critique of the Boomers in their radical heyday as tuned-out hippies and masochistic activists is sad, and probably on-point.

The main takeaway is, if you want to change the world, help those around you. This bottom-up approach seems so foreign today, when we are perilously close to looking for a king to do everything for us.