First posted in 1971, Guidelines for Radicals is Saul Alinsky’s impassioned counsel to youthful radicals on how to effect constructive social switch and know “the difference between being truly a practical radical and being a rhetorical one.” Written in the midst of radical political developments whose path Alinksy was among the first to issue, this volume displays his style at its best. Like Thomas Paine before him, Alinsky could combine, both in his person and his writing, the intensity of politics engagement with a complete insistence on rational politics discourse and adherence to the American democratic tradition.

“Alinsky’s techniques and teachings influenced generations of community and labor organizers, like the church-based group hiring a [Barack] Obama to focus on Chicago’s South Aspect in the 1980s….Alinsky impressed a [Hillary] Clinton, who was developing up in Recreation area Ridge at that time Alinsky was the director of the Industrial Areas Basis in Chicago.” -Chicago Sun-Times