Saul Alinsky—born in Chicago in 1909 to parents who had immigrated from Russia—grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home. He went to the University of Chicago and did graduate work in criminology. He studied sociological theories of disorganization that looked at societal and institutional causes of crime rather than theories attributing crime to heredity. His two most famous works are Reveille for Radicals, published in 1946, and Rules for Radicals, first published in 1971.

He is internationally recognized for his work advocating for the less privileged and economically disenfranchised and for his scholarship in political theory. He would eventually organize communities in the yards of Chicago. While rumored to be associated with communist theories and personages, Alinsky would never be formally accused of communism or targeted by McCarthyism. Over the course of his life, Alinsky worked with many marginalized and disadvantaged groups, unconcerned with possible damage to his reputation. He married three times and died in 1972 in California.