The radical vision of Saul Alinsky

by P. David Finks

305 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Vincent Vertuccio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book. One of my favorites in a while. Really captured Alinsky and his life's work.

[Teacatweaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thinly disguised ode to a hero, who had one huge success in life, and managed to eke it out into a living. I am not surprised at the Catholic Church being such a big financial supporter of Alinsky's activities. But like all "good ideas" that are institutionalized, Alinsky's approach has been morphed into a modern-day weapon to subsidize the entitlement crowd. His vision was dependent on educated and involved people that would become successful working contributors to society. The current socialist movement that bases their "anti-capitalist" agenda on his teachings are not really true to Alinsky's belief system, but its antithesis.

According to Alinsky, the government is an organization that needs to be monitored, not an organization that dictates lifestyle through laws and re-appropriating wealth.

[Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very informative biography of the man many of today's Republicans love to hate. A Jewish community organizer who enlisted the aid of the Catholic Church and to a lesser degree Protestant denominations in his efforts to organize black communities in Chicago, Rochester, and many other cities around the country. He inspired Fred Ross who was working with Mexican farmworkers in California, who in turn recruited Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, who later came to lead the United Farm Workers union. I wish more space had been devoted to Alinsky's books and their reception. Also I wish a lot of the philosophical discussion in the last chapter had been more present in earlier chapters. But this is a solid biography.