Walls, David. The Activist's Almanac: The Concerned Citizen's Guide to
the Leading Advocacy Organizations in America. New York: Simon & Schuster
(Fireside), 1993. 432 pages.
David Walls began as an activist during the Free Speech Movement at
Berkeley in 1964 and is now a dean at Sonoma State University in California.
From 1966-1981 he lived in Kentucky and was active in local organizing
projects. For this book he interviewed leaders of over a hundred groups,
which are divided into environmental, peace and foreign policy, human rights
(broadly defined to include various special interests from race and gender
to animal rights), and multiissue organizations. Most of the organizations
selected are national in scope or impact, and all are nonprofit with an
emphasis on changing public policy. (Unfortunately, groups specializing in
information services are excluded under these criteria, but one has to draw
the line somewhere for a project that's this ambitious.) Although one
suspects that Walls is more interested in left-liberalism, he also includes
centrist, establishment, and conservative organizations, and is able to
discuss them objectively.
The group profiles are comprehensive and well-written, and include the
history, priorities, internal staff conflicts, funding sources, budget, and
membership. Beyond the group names themselves, we also picked up the names
of 700 individuals who are mentioned in these profiles.
ISBN 0-671-74634-0
Extract the names from this source
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