Community-based organizing stands at a crossroads at a time when anti-democratic headwinds and authoritarian impulses threaten American society as never before. Robert T. Gannett Jr. draws on a forty-year career as a grassroots activist to make an impassioned plea for citizens to create the robust infrastructure of organizing that is necessary to sustain modern-day democracy.

As Gannett shows, the methods pioneered by legendary activist Saul Alinsky provide the means for channeling citizens’ anger and frustration into meaningful social change. Gannett weaves his personal journey as an “outside agitator” through in-depth studies of successful and unsuccessful campaigns. Gannett places financial sustainability, political independence, and a commitment to process as much as to purpose at the core of organizing. He also focuses on the importance of veterans mentoring the next generation to meet the challenges of the future.

Hard-headed but hopeful, In the Spirit of Alinsky distills decades of on-the-ground experience into a guide for effective radical action.

Robert T. Gannett Jr. is the executive director of the Institute for Community Empowerment and a longtime community organizer in Chicago.