Summer (Radical) Reading
Saul Alinsky famously wrote much of his first book, Reveille for Radicals, while in jail, and insisted that had he not been incarcerated it would never have been written.
Every revolutionary leader of consequence has had to undergo these withdrawals from the arena of action. Without such opportunities, he goes from one tactic and one action to another, but most of them are almost terminal tactics in themselves; he never has a chance to think through an overall synthesis, and he burns himself out. Rules for Radicals, p.157
While we often get caught up in the whirlwind of activism & classes during the semester, summer affords us the chance to reflect on the past year's victories and failures, draw bigger picture conclusions, and of course, catch up on our reading. Here is some radical reading material I suggest you curl up with beside the pool, on the beach, after a romp in the field, or between shifts at your unbearable summer job:
Free Material:
Toward a Student Syndicalist Movement, or University Reform Revisited by Carl Davidson [PDF]
Redefining Campus Power by Andy Burns [PDF]
Student Power by Aaron Kreider [PDF]
Student Unionism and Sustaining Student Power by Charlie Eaton [PDF]
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Radicalizing Processes by Daniel Hunter [PDF]
The Port Huron Statement by Students for a Democratic Society [HTML]
A Theory of Power by Jeff Vail [PDF]
Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition by John T. Jost, et al. [PDF]
Radical Theory Instructional by Michael Albert [HTML]
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn [HTML]
Non-Free Material:
In the Trenches
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
The Activist's Handbook by Randy Shaw
Reclaiming The Ivory Tower by Joe Berry
Consensus by Peter Gelderloos
Analysis and Theory
Education for Critical Consciousness by Paulo Friere
Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy by Duncan Kennedy
Exhausted School: Bending Traditional Education by John Taylor Gatto
Participatory Democracy: Prospects For Democratizing Democracy
History
The Modern School Movement by Paul Avrich and Barry Pateman
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Have other suggestions? Toss them in the comments! This list could really use some good campus-oriented anti-racist and anti-sexist essays/books. Ideas?