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Saul D. Alinsky

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Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals Kindle Edition

by Saul D. Alinsky (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 3,941 ratings

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“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.”

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This country's leading hell-raiser.... has set down some of the rules of the game. No one has had more experience or has been more successful at it than Alinsky.” —The Nation

“Alinsky's techniques and teachings influenced generations of community and labor organizers, including the church-based group hiring a young [Barack] Obama to work on Chicago's South Side in the 1980s.... Alinsky impressed a young [Hillary] Clinton, who was growing up in Park Ridge at the time Alinsky was the director of the Industrial Areas Foundation in Chicago.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“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

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This primers tells the "have-nots" how they can organize to achieve real political power for the practice of true democracy.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B003T0G9GM
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (June 22, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 22, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1944 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 226 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #275,809 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #46 in Radical Thought
- #50 in Civics
- #52 in Practical Politics

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4.2 3,941 ratings

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Saul D. Alinsky

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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.

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Customers find the book insightful and worth reading. They describe it as an important primer for Americans to better understand how they have been tricked. Readers praise the writing style as easy to read and interpret, simple, and direct. The humor is appreciated and used to illustrate points. However, some readers feel the philosophy lacks a moral foundation and is despicable. Opinions differ on the level of scariness, with some finding it chilling and disturbing while others consider it amusing.

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Insight Readability Writing style Humor Organization skills Scariness level Morality Pacing

186 customers mention "Insight"182 positive4 negative

Customers find the book insightful and engaging. They appreciate the author's good writing style, insights into human nature, and solid strategies for building groups and organizations. The chapters on tactics are described as eye-opening.

"...This is an incredibly brilliant book on human nature and building groups and organizations." Read more

"...of the talented organizer are given as: curiosity, irreverence, imagination, a sense of humor, a bit of a blurred vision for a better world, an..." Read more

"...This is a fascinating read for political junkies...." Read more

"...I found this to be an excellent read. Alinsky has made good use of research and notes in his writing...." Read more

157 customers mention "Readability"141 positive16 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They say it's an important primer for Americans to understand how they have been tricked. The footnotes are useful and considered one of the best books on social change.

"...Rules for Radicals” is important an important book...." Read more

"...Get this version – the footnotes are worth it - Not the OCR version. Its footnotes are impossible to follow...." Read more

"...This is an excellent primer for Americans to read to better understand how they have been tricked, and how to go about returning the favor to those..." Read more

"...I found this to be an excellent read. Alinsky has made good use of research and notes in his writing...." Read more

70 customers mention "Writing style"51 positive19 negative

Customers find the book's writing style easy to read and interpret. They appreciate the simple, direct, and straightforward approach. The data is presented clearly, making it very easy to grasp. Readers also mention that the rationalization is convincing and the ideas outlined are solid and proven.

"...Its footnotes are impossible to follow.Checking the veracity of this book is easy...." Read more

"...The idea that the rules are simple and easy to interpret, but that it is people who take these rules out of context and use them for their own..." Read more

"...I was expecting to hate it, but the book is lively and well-written, if a tad too authoritative in voice...." Read more

"...Overall, I give this book 2 stars for being poorly written and contradictory, but I would still recommend a quick reading of it to understand its..." Read more

16 customers mention "Humor"13 positive3 negative

Customers enjoy the book's humor. They find it insightful and amusing, with humorous anecdotes used to illustrate points. The author uses humor to illustrate his points in a thoughtful way.

"...characteristics of the talented organizer are given as: curiosity, irreverence, imagination, a sense of humor, a bit of a blurred vision for a..." Read more

"...As a matter of fact he glosses over it. It's fun. It's a living...." Read more

"...While the chapters on tactics are eye-opening, humorous, and insightful, it is the first half of the book about the community organizers'..." Read more

"...Alinsky doesn't take himself too seriously. The book is full of humor and good will.Without question, the Rules are a touchstone...." Read more

8 customers mention "Organization skills"8 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's organization skills. They mention it provides great ideas on how to organize, and clearly organizes data. The book also offers a clear, foolproof blueprint for organizing support.

"...The book itself reads more like a lecture - it is well organized, but informal in style and substance...." Read more

"...may believe in, Professor Alinsky has a clear, foolproof blueprint for organizing your support and making it happen...." Read more

"...been known for hundreds if not thousands of years, but he organizes his data clearly and makes it very easy to grasp...." Read more

"...They are great organizers, skilled at tactics that pit A against B. Blindly even states as much...." Read more

27 customers mention "Scariness level"12 positive15 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's scariness level. Some find it chilling, provoking, and alarming. Others describe it as disturbing and eye-opening.

"...or views but to applaud the devil regardless is untactful and disturbing...." Read more

"Well written, thought provoking, and then frightening in the last chapter as he discusses plans for the middle class, June 20, 2013..." Read more

"...'s Play Book - A Book Dedicated to Saten [sic] - Full of Contraditions [sic] - A book for how to be a psychopathic liberal...." Read more

"...I found the book easy to read and about as provocative as they come...." Read more

35 customers mention "Morality"4 positive31 negative

Customers find the philosophy in the book despicable and lacking a moral foundation. They say it's a radical tome with ideological ambiguity.

"...Overall, I give this book 2 stars for being poorly written and contradictory, but I would still recommend a quick reading of it to understand its..." Read more

"...issue I have with Alinsky is what I see as a lack of ethics in his beliefs and practices...." Read more

"...I wanted to read it to know how they think. This philosophy is despicable and is accepted only by those who think they know better than the average..." Read more

"...It is the most immoral unethical book I have ever read, but understanding that this is how our country is being run is necessary to turn it around...." Read more

15 customers mention "Pacing"4 positive11 negative

Customers find the book's pacing frustrating and confusing. They find the system self-defeating and hopeless. The instructions are difficult to follow, making it hard for some to get through due to its political bent.

"...(the poor), and the "Have-a-little, Want-Mores" (middle class); this is simplistic, and obviously has Marxist class-warfare origins...." Read more

"...Now, in any moral dilemma, hard decisions are sometimes necessary...." Read more

"...The rules are simple; timing is everything and knowing your opponent's objective and every move is just as important as your own because their moves..." Read more

"...Some of his ideals seem honorable however his path to accomplishment is absolutely deplorable...." Read more

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Clarence Oliver
Read the Republican Playbook
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2012
Verified Purchase
You know, it interested me that all of a sudden the great boogeyman was Saul Alinsky, how could this guy that I read when I was in High School, whose book I thought intersting, but, nothing more than that, be the structure of presidential power and control of the country. So, I bought another copy because I lost mine, and decided to give it a reread, if my president is trying to use mind control on me, I want to know about it. It turns out that this is more than Republican Playbook, but, because Republicans, I believe, I don't read books by and large, they only partly understood. Let's go through the rules and let me explain.

First Rule Of Radicals: Power is not What You have But What The Enemy THinks You have. Sort of like when everyone on BSM (BS Mountain, or Fox News as you may prefer) was predicting a Romney victory, with the swells of non-existent Middle class White men standing up for the country, and voting that possibly Non-American out of the White House. Of course, in reality, there were no swarms of white men, and the numbers weren't on their side, and the amount of power they have was quite limited.

Second Rule: Never Go Outside The Experience of Your People. Okay, Romney created a surplus in MA, at least temporarily, by issuing State Bonds, which he then sold to the market. The man ran a Billion Dollar business, but, his biggest ideas were, "End Plan Parenthood (when he was pro-choice for half his time as Governor) and Veto Obamacare." I don't think Romney is a wealth of intellectual fortitude, but, I do believe the man could've developed an actual plan with complicated ins and outs, but, keep it simple, focus on God, Country, and Socialism.

Third Rule: Wherever Possible Go Outside The Experience Of Your Enemy: Everyday we were told by the Conservative Media that Romney's business experience puts him in the lead of understanding how to create jobs and get the country back on track.

Fourth Rule: Make The Enemy Live Up To Their Own Book of Rules: They paint liberals as people who want free stuff, rather than as people who believe their tax money should go to them. By asking questions that paint them into the corner such as You believe it's a right to have Health Care and Food and Shelter, and the Democrat is forced to say Yes.

Fifth Rule: Ridicule is Man's Mos Powerful Weapon: If I have to explain how they ridicule the President of the United States, you aren't watching Fox News.

Sixth Rule: A Good Tactic is One That Your People Enjoy: What news show has the highest rating? If blistering unfounded accusations and other perfundities didn't fire up the ire of the watching public the Conservative Media wouldn't be saying it.

Seventh Rule: A Tactic that Drags on Too Long Becomes a Drag: Knowing when to turn to something else, knowing when to switch targets, seems to be a specialty that keeps their news popping.

Eighth Rule: Keep The Pressure on: Bengahzi anyone, a tragedy yes, a national scandal no, a conspiracy definitely not. If anyone would've treated the other 9/11 in such a way, well, Bill O'Reilly would be calling a young man whose father died in the incident Unamerican Garbage and threaten to beat him up and kick him off the show.

Ninth Rule: The Threat is more Terrifying than the Truth: Benghazi, Agenda 21, Universal Health Care, Obama's Reelection... should I go on?

Tenth Rule: Utilizing All Tactis to Keep Pressure on: Fox News, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh all do this.

Elevenths: Push a negative until it becomes a positive: The 47 Percent becomes an accurate and gutsy statement on the true state of America. Turning Positive statements of your enemy into negative.

Twelth: The price of an assault is a constructive alternative: This is where Republicans screw up, they're never willing to pay the price for their actions and come up with Alternatives. The fact that so many things have passed, hasn't been because of the lack of the republican's ability to utilize 11 rules, it's been their lack of ability to utilize the Twelth.

Thirteenth: Pick The target, Isolate it, Polarize it, and Freeze it: Obamacare, Taxes, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid... these tactics have served brilliantly to polarize our country.

Does Obama use these techniques. Yes. But not nearly as effective or as showy as the Republican party. They brilliantly showed you their playbook and then told their viewers it was the other teams, and then are wondering why they're losing. They think they have far more voters than they actually have. This is an incredibly brilliant book on human nature and building groups and organizations.

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Thomas M. Loarie
We are Being Played; Know the “Rules” of Their Game or the US & Our Constitutional Republic Loses
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2012
Verified Purchase
Updated December 2016

Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” is a widely used primer for organizers trying to create social change and political justice. These “rules” have also been adopted by many national, state and local politicians in their quest for power or support for issues which may not have anything to do with social change.

Alinsky was a Chicago-born archaeology major who, in the midst of the Great Depression, dropped out of graduate school and became involved first with the labor movement and then with community organizing. He has experienced unusual notoriety in recent years due to his connection with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and alleged connection to President Barack Obama.

Clinton interviewed him and wrote her senior thesis, "An Analysis of the Alinsky Model," while at Wellesley.

Critics of the President (who also worked as a community organizer in Chicago prior to embarking on his political career) often link his name with that of Saul Alinsky, sometimes in ways that suggest the two men knew each other and worked together. While untrue, there is some evidence he did teach and practice Alinskian methods to create “change” as an organizer.

With an understanding of the “Rules” and a look back over the past 20 years, we will see that they are being employed by a vast number of “organizers” across all political interests to “divide and conquer” in a quest for power and support.

Disruption of meetings and creating fear are two of Alinsky’s most visible trademarks: using spectacles – fighting, vulgarities, and incessant interruptions – to make up for a lack of numbers; targeting an individual to make a large point; and using ridicule to persuade the undecided. All were visible in the 2016 Presidential Election cycle.

Alinsky, who died in 1972, explained that his book was concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people. “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. ‘The Prince’ was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. ‘Rules for Radicals’ was written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.”

The “Rules for Radicals” outlined by Alinsky are:

1. “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from money and people. “Have-Nots” lack money so they must build power from flesh and blood.
2. “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.
(Consider how organizers start by getting ‘the people’ to see them as one of them. Obama did this shortly after becoming President when he attacked a Cambridge police officer, without any facts, for arresting a black Harvard professor. We learned later that the officer was correct in his arrest. That was a non-issue for the President as he used this incident to let Blacks everywhere know he was one of them and he understood their fears.)
3. “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
(Consider Donald Trump’s characterizing opposing candidates like an editorial cartoonist by emphasizing one outstanding trait – “Crooked Hillary,” “Little Marco,” etc. This approach was well outside the norm for political battle, and put those who were targeted on defense.)
4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.
5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
(Obama, Clinton, Trump, and Harry Reid are all guilty of using ridicule.)
6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing and will even suggest better ones.
7. “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news.
8. “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.
(Consider flank attacks by Democrats with charges that Candidate McCain had an affair, and then the release of the “Access Hollywood” video painting Trump as a molester.)
9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
10. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition." It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.
11. “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.
(Consider Clinton’s charge that temperamental Trump was unfit to serve, and Trump’s charge that “crooked” Hillary was unfit to serve. And Senator Harry Reid’s aggressive approach to almost any issue and Hollywood’s romanticizing of provocative issues.)
12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem.
13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
(Consider what we are witnessing with just about every Trump appointee…racism, fascism, xenophobia, etc.)

Alinskian methods work. They have been widely adopted in the quest for power by politicians, Hollywood, interest groups and other organizations with vested interests. They have contributed to today’s absence of any fundamental Truth, and the resulting absence of productive political discourse. Moral relativity is the only truth and from this comes political correctness, gender conflict, gender confusion and so many other confusing aspects of US culture that had at one time been anchored in Truth. These methods, though, create the very unrest and disparities that those who use them claim to be fighting against.

One of many troubling aspects of Alinsky’s philosophic approach centers on the notion of “means and ends.” “Means and ends are so qualitatively interrelated that the true question has never been the proverbial one, ‘Does the End Justify the Means?’ but always has been ‘Does this particular end justify this particular means?’…THE END JUSTIFIES ALMOST ANY MEANS.” Moral rationalization is indispensable at times of action…to justify the selection for use of means and ends.”

This philosophy made national news in 1996 when Vice-President Gore’s role was exposed in a money-laundering scheme involving the California-based Hsi Lai Buddhist temple. Gore admitted his mistake on TV when questioned in a news conference, but he continued by adding, “Think of the importance of what we were doing and how we were going to use this money.” The ends justify the means (laws are to be broken for the right ends) was in evidence at highest levels of our government.

And a fundamental reason many felt Hillary Clinton lost her presidential bid was that Democrats forgot the “white working man.” Alinksy points to the political power of this group in the book’s last chapter, “The Way Ahead.”

“America’s white middle class… is where the power is… The middle class are fearful people, who feel threatened from all sides: the nightmare of pending retirement and old age with the social security decimated by inflation; the conflict of cultures threatening job competition; the high cost of long-term illness; and finally with mortgages outstanding, they dread the possibility of property devaluation from non-whites moving to the neighborhood. They are beset by taxes and installment buying. They are victimized by TV commercials with fraudulent claims. Their pleasures are simple – once a week dinner out, gardening, etc. They look at the unemployed poor as a parasitical dependency, recipients of the vast variety of massive public programs they will pay for.”

“Rules for Radicals” is important an important book. The book is centered on manipulation through disruption using tactics (means) that are justified by the ends…the ends of those seeking power that comes from division.

We are being played and unless we know the “rules” of their game, the US and our Constitutional Republic will lose.

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donaldleblanc
great!
Reviewed in Canada on August 14, 2024
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great read, thanks!

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Amazon Kunde
Left or right, doesn‘t matter.
Reviewed in Germany on October 26, 2024
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This is a book full of great strategies to further your political goals on a local level.

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Richard
A bit dated - but fascinating. And still relevant to our times.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2024
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A bit dated - but fascinating. And still relevant to our times. It's a call-to-arms for those of us who see social-justice as important, and despair at way of the world. Can recommend.

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EV
It is worth the read
Reviewed in India on September 1, 2022
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This book puts forward a lot of things on how the communist have a negative impact on the society.

It also shares some detailed insight, into gradual and permanent decay of a society.

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Raul V. Campos Garcia
Precaución al abrir
Reviewed in Mexico on January 27, 2020
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El autor fue un activista, por largo tiempo, tiene procedimientos extremos para hacerse oír y no comparto sus metas ni métodos

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great!

Left or right, doesn‘t matter.

A bit dated - but fascinating. And still relevant to our times.

It is worth the read

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5.0 out of 5 stars Read the Republican Playbook

5.0 out of 5 stars We are Being Played; Know the “Rules” of Their Game or the US & Our Constitutional Republic Loses

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5.0 out of 5 stars great!

5.0 out of 5 stars Left or right, doesn‘t matter.

5.0 out of 5 stars A bit dated - but fascinating. And still relevant to our times.

5.0 out of 5 stars It is worth the read

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Read the Republican Playbook

We are Being Played; Know the “Rules” of Their Game or the US & Our Constitutional Republic Loses

great!

Left or right, doesn‘t matter.

A bit dated - but fascinating. And still relevant to our times.

It is worth the read

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