Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything Paperback – November 7, 2016

This is a super-insightful, practical, straightforward and inspiring playbook from the architects of the Bernie Sanders distributed organizing campaign (distributed = millions of volunteers coordinating via technology to make contact and engage voters and propel Sanders close to victory in the 2016 primaries, defying all expectations). It's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the nuts and bolts of how to leverage volunteers and technology to make change happen -- whether it's influencing elected officials and community leaders, getting a political candidate elected, fundraising for your local non-profit, or starting a social media campaign to educate or engage people on a timely issue. This book does an incredible job of walking you through how to leverage, manage, and mobilize scores of volunteers, how to use technology effectively and on a shoe-string budget, things to do as a campaign / volunteer manager (e.g. trust and empower your volunteers) and things to avoid (e.g. being afraid to fire people who like to hear themselves talk but don't actually do the work), and, in short, how to engage, unite, educate, empower and organize a group of people to create the change you want to see in the world. Don't hesitate to read it and recommend it to everyone you know! We need as many citizens as possible to wake up and realize that organizing a committed group of citizens is remarkably straightforward and can have huge impact!

Whether you like to look back at the historical account of how a campaign went from being though of as a passing fad to almost upsetting the system or you want to learn the specifics of what was done so you can implement them yourself, this book is for you. The book breaks down into clear simple steps the actions done by the Sanders campaign to use Big Organizing. The steps while not always applicable to smaller campaigns still provide a real insight into how running campaigns is evolving.

It is, at the same time, a behind-the-scenes look at an amazing political campaign and a road map for organizing your own revolution. The authors tell us it's not meant to be a step-by-step guide, but in these pages you have everything you need to understand how big organizing can be applied to your organization. How to engage people, how to inspire them, and how to out them to work...simply by asking!It takes a critical eye to recent past elections (including the run up to 2016 elections), the history of political organizing principles, and even those who have pioneered modern methods of advocacy. With amazing detail, the authors explain the thought and planning that went into building their big organizing processes; then follow up with the steps they took on the ground and in the field to organize hundreds of thousands of people around a common cause.So many other books on organizing outline the principle, detail the theory, and pepper-in a few success stories - leaving you to figure out the rest and how to put it into practice. "How to run your political campaign" type books suffer from this. But Rules for Revolutionaries gives you a holistic view of how a digital organizing team can affect so many areas of a campaign and how it can be the catalyst for a modern revolution.After finishing it, I'm excited for the ways I might apply this to our nonprofit, and other causes with which I am involved.I highly recommend the read.

Interesting experience, inspiring but the lessons leave me wanting more. This is more of a travelogue of hardworking campaigners thsn real strategic advice. Seems ghat a lot of what worked was a tipping point taking place, more than brilliant strategy..

Very user-friendly book that clearly describes the steps necessary for political organization and for moving this country forward. "Fighting Racism Must be at the Core of the Message to Everyone" is possibly the best chapter. Also includes a chapter about importance of the role of nurses in fighting a social revolution which, as a nurse and a teacher, I have been trying to get my students to understand for years (nice to finally see it in print!) Motivating, understandable, hopeful. A must-read if you are interested in seeing real change a la Bernie.

This is an excellent idea-generating book. Not only that, but as a reader, it gave me the knowledge to feel like I can actually start-putting ideas to action. It is a great read for anyone who wants to organize people to make a difference without access to significant amounts of start-up cash. It's almost a 'how to crowd-source' an organization book. For aspiring political candidates or movement organizers, this is a must read if you do not have access to deep corporate pockets or, like me and many others, do not want access to the strings that come attached to that type of money.

As a dedicated supporter of Bernie's campaign, and as someone who knows and advocates for political and economic revolution, I'm glad this book was written.I wasn't as active in the Bernie campaign as much I would of have liked, but I learned more than I imagined from this book about what it took to build the movement that grew around Bernie.This is not a definitive book about the movement. The role social media in the campaign, Bernie's decision to run in the Democratic party, and other political forces that helped shape the movement are not very much talked about in this book.But this book does explain what it takes to build political movements and campaigns in the digital age, and how you use and mix digital technology with traditional people to people organizing that is essential to movement building.This book also captures recent history being made. So if you supported Bernie, you'll appreciate the incites of this book.