Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American CommunityOnce 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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 87
Page 2
... century.4 According to the best available evidence, these declines have continued uninterrupted. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, fewer and fewer Americans are socializing through membership organizations.5 • The decline in ...
... century.4 According to the best available evidence, these declines have continued uninterrupted. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, fewer and fewer Americans are socializing through membership organizations.5 • The decline in ...
Page 4
... century? The past two decades have witnessed prodigious discussion and disputation about my lineup of suspects: Was ... century and saw mostly declines in measures of social capital. But it ignored the equally important first half of the ...
... century? The past two decades have witnessed prodigious discussion and disputation about my lineup of suspects: Was ... century and saw mostly declines in measures of social capital. But it ignored the equally important first half of the ...
Page 5
... century at nearly the same low we experience today, growing until roughly the mid1960s, then declining again. And, even more remarkably, this essentially steady rise in America's social capital during the first two-thirds of the century ...
... century at nearly the same low we experience today, growing until roughly the mid1960s, then declining again. And, even more remarkably, this essentially steady rise in America's social capital during the first two-thirds of the century ...
Page 24
... century to the lyric nineteenth- century paeans to individualism by Emerson (“Self- Reliance”), Thoreau (“Civil Disobedience”), and Whitman (“Song of Myself”) to Sherwood Anderson's twentieth- century celebration of the struggle against ...
... century to the lyric nineteenth- century paeans to individualism by Emerson (“Self- Reliance”), Thoreau (“Civil Disobedience”), and Whitman (“Song of Myself”) to Sherwood Anderson's twentieth- century celebration of the struggle against ...
Page 25
... century. Analysts have kept asking if things have, in fact, fallen apart.25 At the conclusion of the twentieth century, ordinary Americans shared this sense of civic malaise. We were reasonably content about our economic prospects ...
... century. Analysts have kept asking if things have, in fact, fallen apart.25 At the conclusion of the twentieth century, ordinary Americans shared this sense of civic malaise. We were reasonably content about our economic prospects ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
29 | |
48 | |
65 | |
Connections in the Workplace | 80 |
Informal Social Connections | 93 |
Altruism Volunteering and Philanthropy | 116 |
Education and Childrens Welfare | 296 |
Safe and Productive Neighborhoods | 307 |
Economic Prosperity | 319 |
Health and Happiness | 326 |
Democracy | 336 |
The Dark Side of Social Capital | 350 |
What Is to Be Done? | 365 |
Toward an Agenda for Social Capitalists | 402 |
Reciprocity Honesty and Trust | 134 |
Against the Tide? Small Groups Social Movements and the Net | 148 |
Why? | 183 |
Mobility and Sprawl | 204 |
Technology and Mass Media | 216 |
From Generation to Generation | 247 |
What Killed Civic Engagement? Summing Up | 277 |
So What? with the assistance of Kristin A Goss | 285 |
Has the Internet Reversed the Decline | 415 |
Measuring Social Change | 447 |
Sources for Figures and Tables | 457 |
The Rise and Fall of Civic and | 469 |
notes | 477 |
the story behind this book | 545 |
index | 555 |
Common terms and phrases
activities adults American analysis archive associations attendance average become Bowling century chapter church civic engagement club compared connections correlated DDB Needham decades decline Democracy economic effects equality evidence example face fact factors figure five forms four fraction friends giving groups growth half important income increase individual institutions interest Internet involvement John Journal least less levels lives measures meetings membership movement nearly Needham Life Style neighborhood networks organizations parents participation percent period political population question recent relative religious reported Research Review rise Robert Roper roughly share shows single Social and Political social capital society Statistics suggests surveys television third tion Trends trust turn twentieth century twenty United University Press Urban virtually volunteering watching women World York