Beautiful Trouble

Even so, it's an illuminating and inspiring distillation of some of the most effective campaigning strategies of the last 50 years.

The book has four sections - tactics, principles, theories and case studies - with each example briefly explained, fully cross-referenced and supported with information on further reading.

Principles include such gems as "put your target in a decision dilemma," involving the creation of a scenario where the politician and/or corporate ratbag at the centre of your protest is put in a "lose-lose situation."

A classic example was when US pranksters the Yes Men posed as representatives of Dow Chemicals and announced on BBC news that the company was finally apologising for the Bhopal chemical spill and paying compensation to the victims' families.

As its share price plummeted, the company was forced to announce that it had not apologised for the disaster and was not paying compensation, drawing attention to the continued injustice of the situation.

One gripe is the near-total absence of any third world struggles except those which dovetail nearly with the author's own preferences.

An example is the chapter on the "mass, many day trek," which claims Gandhi's 1932 Salt March is "likely the best-known example" of such a tactic and goes on to discuss several other marches across the US. All very interesting but does Mao's gruelling Long March not even merit a mention?

Nevertheless, this is a useful and inspirational piece of work.