Blessed Art the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America

"Grassroots Democracy" is the belief that "ordinary citizens can indeed act responsibly and effectively if they organize themselves properly and cultivate the virtues and skills of democratic citizenship." Focusing on broad-based organizations, Blessed are the Organized studies the stories of the Katrina survivors, the immigrant shantytowns in Texas, and a synagogue in Marin County, as it explores the nature and prospects of grassroots democracy.

Examining the nature of citizenship, responsibility, authority, leadership, values, secularity, and religion within democracy, discover how people build an organization, cultivate leadership, tolerate setbacks, and more. Examining the criticisms of grassroots democracy (it can't change anything, among others), readers will explore the nodes that stretch across all levels of the political playing field, examining the ways in which people actually function within our system of government. 346 pages, indexed, softcover.