America's Social Arsonist: Fred Ross and Grassroots Organizing in the Twentieth Century Kindle Edition

Great book ... well written ... easy to read text ...Good story about a life time of work helping others. Enjoyed. Wish I could have met this person.

Mr. Thompson has accomplished something only a few others have attempted. Within the frame of Fred Ross' life, Thompson has demonstrated that to be called an "organizer" is one thing but to be an "organizer" is something entirely different. "Organizer" has become a job title within the framework of most non-profits; it has become a title that is so ubiquitous that it has nearly lost its meaning. This fine book has restored its richer, more complex meaning by demonstrating that a good organizer requires unique gifts that cannot be taken for granted, subverted by praise and presumed to be ordinary. There are as many great organizers as there are major league shortstops or world class neurosurgeons.I can report that I have done the work, had the house meetings, and fought recalcitrant employers. After reading this book, I wish I could have learned from Fred Ross. I would have both hated him and better understood why my small efforts were both successful and unsuccessful.Besides being a wonderful biography, this book will make a fine primer for an organization seeking to train and prepare organizers. It should be mandatory reading for those who think they are organizers.I gave it 4 stars because I thought the section about Ross and Chavez was a little uneven. It does not diminish the book but I would have welcomed less focus on Chavez's shortcomings and more on Ross' silence regarding them.

This superb book about Fred Ross should be read by everyone interested in 20th century American history and by everyone who hopes to mobilize and organize people to fight for economic and social justice. Fred Ross spent decades as a community organizer and Gabriel Thompsonshares Ross's axioms for organizers which are lessons for all of us. "An organizer is a leader who does not lead but gets behind people and pushes." After "setting people on fire" to work for their cause, there are no shortcuts. and one must pay attention to the "little" things...Thereis no substitute for face to face contact and "ninety nine percent of organizing is follow up."Beyond the practical value of this book, it is a fascinating, meticulously researched, beautifully written biography of a man whose contributions (including recruiting and training Cesar Chavez) are mostly unknown. Before that he worked with dust bowl migrants and interned Japanese. Ross is presented in all of his complexity-- his amazing work, his passion and commitment and the costs to his family of such zeal. A great book! I highly recommend it!

I picked up this book because I've read the author before and I'm really fascinated with community organizing. I wasn't familiar with Fred Ross or most of the other people in this book. Even my knowledge of Cesar Chavez and Saul Alinsky was kind of embarrassingly non-existent, so this book filled in some major gaps in my understanding of the history of the labor movement. It's also worth noting that there are some really amazing stories about the Great Depression and the Japanese internment camps.I found this book was a pretty quick and fun read. Fred Ross is certainly an intriguing guy, and there are some really improbable and exhilarating victories over this period! But by the end, I was left a little saddened. I think that the book ultimately shows that so many outcomes in organizing are shaped by force of personality and serendipity -- even in spite of Ross' fanatical dedication to method and discipline.

As an activist and inspiring community organizer, this book was a fascinating and well-written look at the life of one of the U.S.'s most influential yet forgotten leaders for social justice. I appreciated the frankness with which the author covered Ross's strengths and stumblings, as well as the sad unraveling of the UFW and the (often erased) decline of Cesar Chavez. I deeply respect both of these men and their achievements, but too often we only hear the heroic tales, and do not get the full picture. This should be required reading for anyone who is interested in making a difference through grassroots social movements.

Wonderful story of a hero of the farm workers' labor movement in California. If you don't know the name it is probably because his great contribution was developing others to lead. His "arson" was setting people on fire. Exhaustively researched and lovingly written by Gabriel Thompson. Readable and important. Also check out his "There's No Jose Here" and "Working In the Shadows".

I was emotionally swept up in this provocative story of man I'd never heard of - and he wanted it that way. Led by his mother to look down on others his vision was just the opposite. He was the trainer for Cesar Chavez and devoted the entirety of his life to organizing. The life of a man consumed...

A great read about an incredible organizer who helped change the history of California, the modern labor movement, and conditions of farm workers almost everywhere. Organizers and leaders like Fred Ross teach us that what often separates despair and cynicism from hope and real impact is the patient craft of bringing people together to build power.