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The Collapse and Revival of American Community
Simon and Schuster
August 2001
544 pages ISBN: 0743203046 Trade Size
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Non-Fiction | Self-Help Relationships
Once we bowled in leagues, usually after work -- but no
longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a
significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified
in this brilliant volume, Bowling Alone, which The
Economist hailed as "a prodigious achievement."
Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans'
changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become
increasingly disconnected from one another and how social
structures -- whether they be PTA, church, or political
parties -- have disintegrated. Until the publication of this
groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm
that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and
civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power
in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and
safe. Like defining works from the past, such as
The Lonely Crowd and The Affluent Society, and
like the works of C. Wright Mills and Betty Friedan,
Putnam's Bowling Alone has identified a central
crisis at the heart of our society and suggests what we can
do.
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