Book Review: Direct Citizen Action: How We Can Win the Second American Revolution Without Firing a Shot

I recently purchased and read the book Direct Citizen Action by James Ostrowski. This book lays out many of the foundational principles of what has happened to our country and details things that we, as regular American citizens, can do to fight the monster that has been created - in Ostrowski's words, "...win the second American Revolution without firing a shot." Ostrowski does this clearly and concisely, purposefully keeping his statements as brief as he can in order to keep the length of the book short. In this way he has maximized any activist's potential use of the book by keeping the cost of the book low; he has also held the potential reader's interest by keeping to the point.

Ostrowski begins by defining the exact nature of our government, the way our founding fathers intended it. They never intended for our government to be a democracy (majority rule); rather, they intended the American government to be a republic. Ostrowski does a wonderful job detailing the differences between the two.

Ostrowski then goes on to detail a strategy for action and explains why trying to change the current system from within the political realm won't work. There are many grassroots organizations out there trying to do just that, but Ostrowski explains why it is a particularly hard uphill battle. But he points out that any action taken will help - the entire Revolution will be hard.

Ostrowski's action plan is detailed through the rest of the book and includes items such as "vote with your feet," "vote with your dollars," and "pull your kids out of government schools." Each action item comes with a detailed description of how this will help to change the current system. He also gives small business owners ideas for how to attract patriot customers, and patriot customers the tools to find like-minded businesses to support.

This book is by no means exhaustive in its pursuit of action items, but it never was intended to be: "I hope that this book will get your own creative juices flowing. American's excel at taking the initiative and improvising." Ostrowski's concern is that the current liberty movements will lose steam because, while they are taking on the current system, they are doing it mostly through words and not action. Since everyone knows the phrase "actions speak louder than words," Ostrowski has given us some clear actions to take that will underscore the words that have been said.

Another wonderful feature of this book is the countless online resources That Ostrowski includes to help the reader on their journey of Citizen Action. I will be listing some of these resources at the end of this post.

Anyone who is serious about the cause of liberty and wants to put in place a clear plan of action should read this book. I will look forward to hearing any feedback and participating in the new action movements that spring from the ideas given by James Ostrowski.


Resources:
Political Class Dismissed 

Government Schools Are Bad for Your Kids: What You Need to Know 

The Free State Project 

The Tenth Amendment Center 

Alliance for Separation of School and State 

Mises Institute