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

(Hardback)

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Description

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.

Reviews

"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"
'Overall the book was a good read and I recommend it.' Karen Gray, Journal of Community Practice, Vol 13, No. 4, 2005
"Roots for Radicals is the sort of book you want desperately to like. And...it's not difficult." --Charles Bertsch, Tikkun, Nov/Dec 2004 * Blurb from reviewer *
"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 * Blurb from reviewer *
"Edward T. Chambers might know more about building democratic institutions than any man alive." San Francisco Chronicle * San Francisco Chronicle *

Author Bio

Edward T. Chambers is the executive director of the Industrial Areas Foundation.