Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement
"[T]his throughly documented account is support by insights and evidence from Marshall's personal experience, and many will read it as much for its exciting story of the farm workers' struggle as for its contribution to the theory of social movements.... Recommended." --Social & Behaviorial Science"InWhy David Sometimes Wins, Ganz demonstrates his own marvelous story telling skill in his narration of the farm workers' movement in America... It's about organizing and tactics that work. Ganz describes them in a unique and interesting manner from his own vantage point within the farm workers' movement.WHy David Sometimes Winsis a valuable resource for teachers and students of community organizing, labor history and the dynamics of social change." --Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare"A brilliant new book."--The Nation"Why David Sometimes Winsis an exceptional book that will be of widespread interest to scholars and activists alike."--American Journal of Sociology"This book is a must read for organizers. The analysis of how a small and poor, but motivated, group of workers triggered a social movement provides invaluable lessons on what to do and not do as we struggle with the challenges of the 21st century." --Andy Stern, President, Service Employees International Union"How does David defeat Goliath and, equally important, avoid becoming Goliath? The answer is to develop strategic capacity, an ongoing interactive process of experimentation, learning, and adapting. This fascinating book shows how Cesar Chavez and the UFW created and then lost its strategic capacity-an important lesson on leadership and organization." --Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Harvard University"Through unforgettable and compelling stories, Marshall Ganz convincingly shows how we need not wait for the right time in history, but how we can all participate in making history together and how the resources to do so can be found in one another.Why David Sometimes Winswill enter the canon of readings on social change. Get this book. Read it. Use it!" --Gerald Torres, co-author of The Miner's Canary"Why Sometimes David Winsby Marshall Ganz provides another example of a focus on pure organizing, using the 1960s Farmworkers, a union in which Ganz was a key participant, to develop a general theory of organizing... this nicely crafted book distills a lifetime of knowledge about the strategies and contexts of grassroots organizing to provide new and fundamental insights into how social movements can be most effective" --Contemporary Sociology