Many have asked for a book reading list for intactivists. Here are some of the books that we have found to be very useful for intactivism. You likely have read some of these titles. While there are many other useful books for us, and you may have some favorites of your own, reading a few of these will give you a good basis for how Intact America approaches Changing the Way America Thinks about Circumcision. Let us know what your book reading list is for intactivists.
Social Change Reading List
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell. This popular, easy to read primer is a great way to learn how tipping points work in real life. It is not the basis for Intact America’s tipping point strategy, but it is supportive of it.- Doing Democracy: The MAP Model for Organizing Social Movements, by Bill Moyer. This is what Intact America’s tipping point strategy is primarily based on. IA’s 2012 summit meeting in Indiana focused on this book. Moyer was a strategist for Martin Luther King. He went on to work on other, major causes. Over time, he noticed that all successful social change movements, regardless of the topic, followed the same S-shaped curve. You can see a simplified version of this on our website.
- Re:Imagining Change: How to Use Story-Based Strategy to Win Campaigns, Build Movements, and Change the World, 2nd, by Patrick Reinsborough. A year before IA was founded, Georganne Chapin, Dan Bollinger, Marilyn Milos, and others organized a workshop lead by Reinsborough with his San Francisco based group called SmartMeme (now called Center for Story-based Strategy). It was here that the “big four” organizations learned that we had much to learn about social change and that we needed to organize and focus on our messaging. His book focuses on creating persuasive narratives.
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Dan and Chip Heath. This New York Times bestseller is a wonderful way to learn why some ideas thrive, go viral, and how to improve your idea’s chances. For instance, Intact America’s tagline and our Don’t Ask – Don’t Sell initiative are an outcome of applying the Heath brothers’ methodology. And so is our unabashed Made to Stick anti-foreskin retraction program!
- Ethics into Action: Learning from a Tube of Toothpaste, 2nd, by Peter Singer. This case study is about the animal rights movement. It covers a concerted, carefully researched, strategically planned, and tactically perfect attack on stopping a research lab from using animals for testing.
Genital Cutting/Mutilation Reading List
Circumcision: A History of The World’s Most Controversial Surgery, by David Gollaher. There are many books that cover the topic of male child genital cutting (aka circumcision), but this is the best, current overview you will find.- Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America, by Len Glick. This is the definitive book on the history of the Jewish bris published by the Oxford University Press. The author is written by intactivist, Jewish, physician, and anthropologist Len Glick.
- The Good Mommy’s Guide to Her Little Boy’s Penis, by Adrienne Carmack, Canadian intactivist. This is a great book for parents of newborn boys. It is also information that every intactivist should know concerning penile care.
- Another great resource are the proceedings from the NoCirc Int’l Symposia.