The rise and fall of the multi-issue Mission Coalition Organization is recounted in A Community Organizer's Tale, a richly detailed story of people power set in San Francisco's predominantly Latino Mission District. Employing strategies inspired by community organizer Saul Alinsky and the Deep South civil rights movement, the organization defeated urban renewal, negotiated jobs for the unemployed, and protected low-income tenants from exorbitant rents until it was ultimately weakened by federal ''Model Cities'' funding. Embodying the concept, recently returned to the public eye by its proponent, Barack Obama, that ''change comes from below'' and combining colorful stories, lessons on organizing for social and economic justice, public policy analysis, a keen eye for American politics, and reflection on democratic theory, this is a thoughtful and hopeful antidote to cynicism, apathy, and powerlessness.