Bridging the Class Divide: And Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing

I receive the book Blaming the victim last week on the promise date that was listed when I ordered it thank you. I appreciated.M.A.

Outstanding and a must-read for any middle/upper class person attempting to work on pretty much any social issue. I read it in college, and then ended up buying it again recently to review it.

One working class woman's story and her quest to cross class boundaries. Growing up on the mountains of Apalacia, and working among upper-middle class women, the author learned to value her hard-scrabble background for its emphasis on reality.

It was HORRIBLE! I only got this book for my class, AND IT WAS THE WORST PSYCHOLOGY READ I HAVE EVER READ!

This book truly is an awe inspiring read!! It really should become standard reading for every kind of institution and grassroots organization. The story itself is very moving and makes you feel for and with the author. There are many great lessons to apply to ones life and service and the inspiring words to make you get up and use them. I have brought this book up many times when discussing positive change that is going on in the world and shared my copy with several people and am going to buy another copy as a present for a friend. You will not be able to put the book down until you have read it all the way through!

Bridging the Class Divide is one of the best books in the world on organizing for social change. By telling her own story, Linda Stout makes it clear what the obstacles are for low-income people to work for a better world, and what the obstacles are for forming mixed-class coalitions, and how those obstacles can be overcome.This is not just my own individual opinion. I assigned this book as one of 8 books in a graduate course for environmental advocates, and at the end of the course I asked the students what learnings they would carry with them into their working life the most, and 7 out of 11 students named Linda Stout's key points.-- Betsy Leondar-Wright

Bridging the Class Divide is a "must read" for anyone with an interest in community organizing at any level. Not only is Linda Stout's personal story riveting, but the book also provides concrete steps for how to go about galvanizing groups and individuals. Stout has a great way of reaching out to everyone, not just people who do this full-time, but anyone who wants to make a difference in their community. It is at once inspiring and practical. I read it when it was first published and have referred to it many times since then. My 14-year old recently began bringing together kids to organize around school issues, and I passed it along to him. And if you're not interested in organizing, Stout's personal journey is inspiring all on its own.

We've all heard the saying, "Life is a choir and every voice is important." But we all also know that very rarely is this humane principle put into practice. Linda Stout, in her book "Bridging the Class Divide", shows us over and over again where these voices reside and how they represent important views, important values, and important cultures. Through life experiences, Stout identifies and calls out important characteristics that, when raised up and valued, create a truly well-rounded, truly inclusive society. She shows us how fragile and faint these voices are at birth, and how easily and mindlessly dominant beliefs can annihilate them. Her account of how she herself became more aware of the values and perspectives that shaped her, and began to believe in them and communicate them, is moving and illuminating. Knowing how to nurture and strengthen such contributions, according to Stout, is key to bringing them to the tables we all sit at every day, whether they be work tables, community tables, religious, race, gender, or age tables. Such affirmations of inclusion have a powerful effect on the political and economic webs that impact all of us. However difficult, giving voice and action to all our perspectives, not just the ones that reflect "the way we have always done things," is necessary. Only when each of us insists on communicating our unique perspectives will every voice truly be important to the song the choir is singing.