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Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement |  | Author: Marshall Ganz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
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Seller: allnewbooks
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 333052
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0195162013
Dewey Decimal Number: 331.881309794
EAN: 9780195162011
ASIN: 0195162013
Publication Date: May 28, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Why David Sometimes Wins tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' groundbreaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor--a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce. In 1965, when some 800 Filipino grape workers began to strike under the aegis of the AFL-CIO, the UFW soon joined the action with 2,000 Mexican workers and turned the strike into a civil rights struggle. They engaged in civil disobedience, mobilized support from churches and students, boycotted growers, and transformed their struggle into La Causa, a farm workers' movement that eventually triumphed over the grape industry's Goliath. Why did they succeed? How can the powerless challenge the powerful successfully? Offering insight from a longtime movement organizer and scholar, Ganz illustrates how they had the ability and resourcefulness to devise good strategy and turn short-term advantages into long-term gains. Authoritative in scholarship and magisterial in scope, this book constitutes a seminal contribution to learning from the movement's struggles, set-backs, and successes.
"A brilliant new book."-Peter Dreier, The Nation
"Why David Sometimes Wins is an exceptional book that will be of widespread interest to scholars and activists alike."-Howard Kimeldorf, 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 Wins will enter the canon of readings on social change. Get this book. Read it. Use it!"-Gerald Torres, co-author of The Miner's Canary
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 Fascinating and Inspiring July 4, 2009
Hunter Johnson (Long Beach, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Marshal Ganz provided guidance to the Obama campaign and it would be worth reading just for that background. For me personally, having heard the author lecture, it is great to understand his ideas in more detail
Secondly, it takes some of Marshall's basic leadership teachings and expands on them using the Farm Worker struggle in CA as examples. In his lectures we could see how that was important in generating his thoughts on leadership and it is more clearly articulated in the book, There is a very good discussion on strategy that, as a leader of a nonprofit with limited resources, I have found particularly helpful for where we are today.
It's also a powerful introduction to the whole idea of community organizing, which for those of us who come to this idea late in life, is very informative.
And finally, and maybe of more interest to someone who lives in CA, it is a fascinating look at the whole ag business in our state, how it developed and a history of employer-labor relations over the last 100+ years. I have a better understanding of where I live thru the book besides (hopefully) improving my ability to get thru the economic challenges we're all facing.
A Must Read! November 14, 2004
M. Granowitter
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ganz's "Five Smooth Stones" is an insightful book. It is a must read for anyone interested in grassroots organizing, labor unions, or organizational decision-making. Ganz' book offers a worthwhile roadmap for leaders struggling to achieve social change. The examples he uses provide a detailed and revealing review of the challenges of the times. Given the issues confronting today's workers, this book offers valuable lessons for our future.
Engaging July 29, 2009
Frederick J. Smith (California)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A very engaging and informative documenting of one of the most important unionizing and civil rights movements of our time. Ganz's personal history and involvement make this an extraordinary scholarly analysis of effective organizing. A must read for all grass roots organizers and activist. This book puts many human faces on organizing and civil rights.
Insightful, brilliant review of an important movement October 2, 2009
Celeste Cantu (Southern California)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Dr. Ganz's book brings to the readers an insightful, sensitive and knowledgeable
analysis of one of the most important social/ labor movements in the US. I recommend. This book to anyone who wishes to understand o
our history or wishes to affect social change for the better in the world around them.
Hearing Marshall Ganz speak July 19, 2010
JKE
This book was required reading for a work conference of Community organizers. We were fortunate enought to have Marshall Ganz speak at our event. This is an important part of this country's history, but as we learned from Mr Ganz this issue is nowhere near being solved, by the book did ofer hope and showed the value of the "little" people working together to improve their quality of life
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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