5 Books You Should Read If You Like The Intactivist Guidebook
Books that will change the way you approach social change.
The Intactivist Guidebook explores the path between where activists are and the end of forced genital cutting. To write this book, I read dozens of books on activism, social change, and persuasion. Here are the top five I recommend to those looking to create social change:
Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals by Jonathan Smucker
Hegemon - that’s a good title. Where have I heard that term before? Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals explores how movements achieve power - or don’t. This book reveals how movements often become an insular social club for like-minded people rather than growing and achieving power. I’ve seen the pitfalls this book describes in every movement I’ve studied or been a part of. Every activist I know would benefit from reading this book.
Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution by Andrew Boyd and Dave Oswald Mitchell
Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution is the 48 Laws of Power of activism - a collection of tools and tactics written by different authors. Because this book is more of a collection of articles by different activists than a cohesive vision of a singular author, the chapters are hit-or-miss, with some being better than others, but the ones that are good are so interesting and important that they are well worth the price of admission. The concept of the spectrum of allies that I discuss in The Intactivist Guidebook comes from this book (and is also discussed in Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals).
How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't by Leslie R. Crutchfield
If you read one book on activism, make it this one. Of all the books I read on activism - and there were many - this was the best. How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't shares six principles for why certain movements succeed while others fail based on research across all sorts of movements. This book is clear, actionable, and backed by evidence.
One admirable quality of this book is that the author includes information both on successful movements she clearly does not support and on failed movements she might wish had succeeded, showing that she is willing to pursue the truth about what does and does not work for movements, even when it conflicts with her own preferences. Activists often descend into moralizing when looking at the success or failures of their own work, wanting to blame their failures on the public “not being ready” for their radical ideas or falling for “propaganda” when persuaded by the opposition, rather than looking honestly at the work of activism. This book is an honest clear read on what success requires.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
This is *the* book on persuasion. Every successful person interested in the topic has read this book. You should treat the six chapters of this book like a checklist when trying to persuade. There is little I could write about this book that hasn’t already been said since it is universally acknowledged as the best book on the subject. This is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to persuade others. Go read it.
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
In The Intactivist Guidebook, I wrote that the strength of a movement is the strength of its relationships. This book is about how you create a healthy culture. If movements are about changing the culture, then it is important to understand what makes a culture healthy or toxic. While the internal culture of a movement might seem separate from the task of changing hearts and minds, it will be easier for movements to focus on that task if they work well together, rather than being plagued by toxicity and infighting.
The Intactivist Guidebook contains a focus on internal culture because I saw many unable to be effective at the task of activism due to personal and relational issues. The biggest takeaway I got from The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups is the discussion of the marshmallow challenge, which reveals whether or not groups are being collaborative or engaged in secondary status games. That alone makes this book worth reading.
Honorable Mentions:
Rules For Radicals by Saul Alinsky - This is the book on activism even people who don't do activism have heard of. You should read it because so many in politics use his ideas. Be warned - Saul Alinsky teaches maximum zero-sum games. They work, but they're cruel. I don’t recommend this book to most, because it teaches a very negative way of relating, however, it is worth reading to know how many are playing the game of activism.
Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday - Although the examples might be dated, this book on media manipulation has only become more relevant over time. Keep in mind, this was written before the idiom "fake news" was coined and social media overtook blogs. Many media figures use these techniques.
How Social Movements Die: Repression and Demobilization of the Republic of New Africa by Christian Davenport - This book is about how social movements die. Whereas most books on this list are a checklist for success, this is a checklist for danger. There is one chart in this book that explains the author’s entire theory, and it is worth reading just for that one page. Much of the book might be too academic for general readers, but in the future, I plan to do an article just on this book. Because this book researches black nationalist movements in South Africa, it covers many scenarios I hope my readers never deal with, such as what to do if the state assassinates leaders in your movement or makes activism illegal.
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