Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-278) and index.

Contrary to political myth, community activism did not die out in the 1980s. If anything, it intensified. According to one estimate, the United States is now home to more than 2 million citizen action groups. In this new edition of his classic study, Robert Fisher rounds out his 100-year history of neighborhood organizing in America with an appraisal of those activists and organizations whose pursuit of communal good set them apart during a decade that celebrated the unabashed pursuit of personal wealth. Fisher views the 1980s as an era of practical adaptation for neighborhood organizers. In contrast to the politically charged 1960s and early 1970s, when the predominant philosophy of activism was based on opposition to the established power bases of government and business, the philosophy of 1980s activism was rooted in consensus and moderation: work with those with money and power to get things done. This kind of thinking - which evolved while the neoconservative view of a free-market solution to every social problem dominated policymaking in Washington - encouraged community development corporations: the nuts-and-bolts enterprises now found in cities across the country that rely on government and corporate seed money to develop low-income housing and business activity in economically depressed areas. Throughout the book Fisher concerns himself with the national political and economic backdrops against which neighborhood interests play themselves out. Discussed here are the settlement houses and community centers that thrived during the flush years of the progressive era; the militant tenants' and workers' councils inspired by the Communist and Socialist parties during the lean yearsof the Great Depression; the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Councils started up during Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal era by Saul Alinsky, widely regarded as the founder of neighborhood organizing; the protectionist suburban neighborhood improvement associations of the cold war years; the radical student organizations and the Great Society programs of the incendiary 1960s; and the new populist organizations of the recessionary 1970s. In this updated edition of Let the People Decide, Fisher's analysis - particularly of the 1980s - is informed by new directions in social movement theory that focus on the increasing emphasis on culture and identity in social activism. What it means to be African-American, Hispanic, female, or homosexual now enters into discussions of fair housing or employment practices as notions of class - long a common bond of community activists - decline. What is needed in the 1990s, say Fisher and other social historians, is for the expedience of the 1980s to be infused with an ideology that encourages oppressed groups to unite. This ideology "needs to combine new demands for autonomy and identity with older ones for social justice", Fisher writes, and to foster "a spirit of connectedness and solidarity rather than competition". Fisher's assessment of what has worked and what hasn't over the history of community organizing will be instructive for the next generation of activists as they take up the struggle for social change.

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