Alinsky is best known for Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer (1971), in which he outlines strategies for political community organizing.

• He was known for his outlandish and unique strategies of political activism. For instance, in the 1960s, he once proposed a "fart-in", in which black Americans would disrupt a symphony in New York by eating baked beans and proceeding to flatulate en-masse in the symphony hall.