Both reportorially and philosophically, Gitlin helps the reader understand once-familiar political strategies like "sit-in" and "teach-in," and why "activist" is not just another "ist" (like "feminist"), because "it's not your beliefs that make you one but your beliefs hooking up to your activities."

Unlike some other authors in the "Mentoring" series who've stressed Do's and Don'ts with insufficient history and context, Gitlin rightly praises activism's wins over time: "The Confederacy would not have abolished slavery. The eight-hour day, the minimum wage, Social Security, public funding for medical care and higher education, clean water... were not dreamed up by corporations or status quo governments."

He describes political movements that now seem clear successes, like the divestiture battle against South Africa and Larry Kramer's fight for the distribution of cheap AIDS drugs; the semi-successes, such as Gandhi's campaign to free India from Britain (Result: a free India, but a two-country solution, India and Pakistan, founded on hatred and intolerance); and the failures, in which he lumps the Black Panther Party with the Symbionese Liberation Army. Gitlin's activism looks a lot like classic, American, problem-solving pragmatism, but directed to altruistic social good rather than selfish personal goals or merely scientific accomplishment. [fuck pragmatism]

At bottom, Gitlin's a realist who urges progressive victories in social struggle, not the utopian, all-or-nothing attitude that tempts some idealists into thinking they're "ushering in a worldly paradise." The wise activist will keep the "rapture of purism" under control. ["dreaming? get with it! we're from/on mars" - tosser]

Among tools, the veteran of many protests recommends "a sense of irony" and "playfulness" instead of sarcasm or rage. Among motives, he names the three great ones as "duty, love and adventure," which exclude irresponsibility, hate and timidity. Among commitments, he cites the importance of "connecting to the public," citing Bertolt Brecht's acerbic warning to the East German government that you're not permitted to dissolve the people and elect a new one.