Roots for Radicals: Organizing for Power, Action, and Justice - Hardcover

Edward T. Chambers

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826414990 ISBN 13: 9780826414991

Publisher: Continuum, 2003

Synopsis

Roots for Radicals is a distillation of the IAF (Industrial Areas Foundation) philosophy and its unique approach to community organizing. The IAF is the oldest and largest institution for community organizing in the United States. For sixty years, its mission has been to train people to take responsibility for solving the problems in their own communities and to renew the interest of citizens in public life. The IAF, now headed by the author, Edward T. Chambers, has taken founder Saul Alinsky's original vision, refined it, and created a sophisticated national network of citizens' organizations. One of the key activities is its 10-day training sessions for community organizers.

About this title

Review:

"Here is a how-to-book in the best sense: a primer in how to beat the dragons. It has been designed for community organizers: to know, to feel, and mostly to think creatively how, not so much to lead, as to incite the powerless to find the power and speak for themselves.... Ed Chambers is something of a secular priest, with the community as his parish, teaching that the least of us have the right to lead decent lives. I should point out that his first real teacher was Dorothy Day."

"Here is a how-to-book in the best sense: a primer in how to beat the dragons. It has been designed for community organizers: to know, to feel, and mostly to think creatively how, not so much to lead, as to incite the pow"erless to find the power and speak for themselves .Ed Chambers is something of a secular priest, with the community as his parish, teaching that the least of us have the right to lead decent lives. I should point out that his first real teacher was Dorothy Day." -Studs Terkel

"I found it refreshingly down-to-earth, usable by people (I'm one) who don't share all the ideological assumptions of the author, as well as by those who are convinced."" -Christianity Today"

"Roots for Radicals is the sort of book you want desperately to like. And...it's not difficult." Charles Bertsch, Tikkun, Nov/Dec 2004

'Overall the book was a good read and I recommend it.' Karen Gray, Journal of Community Practice, Vol 13, No. 4, 2005

"This resource for organizers presents a distillation of the Industrial Areas Foundation philosophy and its approach to community organizing.." Reference & Research Book News, February 2004

Synopsis:

Presents a summary of the philosophy of the Industrial Arts Foundation by its current leader and an account of its extraordinary founder, Saul Alinsky.

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0826414990
• ISBN 13: 9780826414991
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 152