Jeffrey Stout, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, recently released Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America, a book documenting the work of the Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation.

According to Princeton University Press, "Stout tells vivid stories of people fighting entrenched economic and political interests around the country. From parents and teachers striving to overcome gang violence in South Central Los Angeles, to a Latino priest north of the Rio Grande who brings his parish into a citizens' organization, to the New Orleans residents who get out the vote by taking a jazz band through streets devastated by Hurricane Katrina, Stout describes how these ordinary people conceive of citizenship, how they acquire and exercise power, and how religious ideas and institutions contribute to their successes."

Related Press:

"Acorn's Fall," review by Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect, November 22, 2010

"The Contested Sacred: The Place of Passion in Politics," by Jeffrey Stout, Commonweal Magazine, November 5, 2010.

"Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America," review by John Presta, NY Journal of Books, October 31, 2010.