Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals is the late work of
community organizer Saul D. Alinsky, and his last book, published in 1971 shortly before his death. His goal for the
Rules for Radicals was to create a guide for future community organizers to use in uniting
low-income communities, or "Have-Nots", in order to empower them to gain
social,
political,
legal and
economic equality by challenging the current agencies that promoted their inequality. Within it, Alinsky compiled the lessons he had learned throughout his personal experiences of community organizing spanning from 1939-1971 and targeted these lessons at the current, new generation of radicals. Divided into ten chapters, each chapter of
Rules for Radicals provides a lesson on how a community organizer can accomplish the goal of successfully uniting people into an active
organization with the power to effect change on a variety of issues. Though targeted at community organization, these chapters also touch on a myriad of other issues that range from
ethics,
education,
communication, and
symbol construction to
nonviolence and
political philosophy.