Training Manual for Candidates: Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals

If you are a candidate, politician, or political activist, this book is required reading. The author has become famous because he is widely given credit for giving the President, who is a relative newbie to national politics, the campaigning skill to win the Presidency.

The subtitle is a Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals. Indeed: this book is equally useful for conservatives and liberals.

Do not let the author’s famous leftist leanings put you off: the wisdom he imparts is equally profitable for both liberal and conservative. In the very beginning he explains that he is trying to expound useful and powerful techniques, not advance a particular point of view. In this, he is mostly successful: his liberalism pops up here and there, but it does not effect the value of what he is saying.

He has a deservedly brilliant grasp on political and community organizing: surely a useful skill, regardless of your politics. It gives you extremely valuable insights into politicking and campaigning. I only wish I had read this earlier in my campaign.

This book is a good companion to Hoffer’s The True Believer. Alinsky gives you tactics, Hoffer gives you strategy. These 2 books complement each other perfectly. Both authors do their share of slicing, dicing, and colorizing history, psychology, and facts to suit their own needs, but this does not take away from the value of what both men are saying. If you are thinking of running for office in 2012, you would be doing yourself and your constituents a big favor by reading both books before formulating your campaign strategy.
Highly recommended.