Rules of Activism

Since its founding, activists have demanded that the U.S. live up to its democratic promise. Now, with Rules of Activism, Charles Euchner offers a concise "field guide" to the critical place of political and social movements in American politics. Activists have always been at the center of democratic reform in America: abolitionism and suffragism, labor and urban reform, civil rights and antiwar protest, feminism and environmentalism. Activists have agitated and confronted authorities to promote basic rights, economic opportunity, and community wellbeing. In this short but comprehensive guide, Euchner describes 15 core rules of successful movements. To describe each rule, Euchner offers compelling case studies of activists at work and then examines the rule's underlying logic. Euchner explores every aspect of activism: recruitment, training, organizational development, leadership, strategy, tactics, and the pivot from protest to policy. In a world of growing inequality and existential crises, activist politics has never been more important. Rules of Activism offers a necessary guide for practitioners, scholars and students, and ordinary citizens seeking to understand this core political practice.

Charles Euchner is an independent writer whose books include Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington.