Bowling AloneOnce 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
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Page
I received fan mail from an incredibly diverse group—from a homemaker in
Windermere, England, to Neil Bush of Kennebunkport, Maine. I was moved by
how many readers (like a firefighter from Erie, Pennsylvania) took the time to tell
me that ...
I received fan mail from an incredibly diverse group—from a homemaker in
Windermere, England, to Neil Bush of Kennebunkport, Maine. I was moved by
how many readers (like a firefighter from Erie, Pennsylvania) took the time to tell
me that ...
Page
NO ONE IS LEFT from the Glenn Valley, Pennsylvania, Bridge Club who can tell
us precisely when or why the group broke up, even though its forty-odd members
were still playing regularly as recently as 1990, just as they had done for more ...
NO ONE IS LEFT from the Glenn Valley, Pennsylvania, Bridge Club who can tell
us precisely when or why the group broke up, even though its forty-odd members
were still playing regularly as recently as 1990, just as they had done for more ...
Page
Roger Whittlesey, TMHS band director, recalled that twenty years earlier the
band numbered more than eighty, but participation had waned ever since.2
Somehow in the last several decades of the twentieth century all these
community groups ...
Roger Whittlesey, TMHS band director, recalled that twenty years earlier the
band numbered more than eighty, but participation had waned ever since.2
Somehow in the last several decades of the twentieth century all these
community groups ...
Page
Your extended family represents a form of social capital, as do your Sunday
school class, the regulars who play poker on your commuter train, your college
roommates, the civic organizations to which you belong, the Internet chat group
in ...
Your extended family represents a form of social capital, as do your Sunday
school class, the regulars who play poker on your commuter train, your college
roommates, the civic organizations to which you belong, the Internet chat group
in ...
Page
Examples of bonding social capital include ethnic fraternal organizations, church-
based women's reading groups, and fashionable country clubs. Other networks
are outward looking and encompass people across diverse social cleavages.
Examples of bonding social capital include ethnic fraternal organizations, church-
based women's reading groups, and fashionable country clubs. Other networks
are outward looking and encompass people across diverse social cleavages.
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - jonerthon - LibraryThingProbably the last of the older titles that has been on my reading list too long. Though it is dated in some ways, I was glad to finally get through this one and understand why so many planners have ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - ddonahue - LibraryThingThe present withdrawal of the individual from social organizations now resembles the situation after WW I as depicted in Chapter IX of Eckstein's Rites of Spring, in which he describes veteran's eschewal of social commitments. Read full review
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activities adults American analysis archive associations attendance average become behavior Bowling century chapter church cities citizens civic engagement club compared connections correlated DDB Needham decades decline Democracy economic effects equality especially evidence example fact factors figure 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 religious reported Research response Review rise Robert Roper roughly share shows single Social and Political social capital society Statistics suggests surveys television Trends trust turn twentieth century United University Press Urban viewing virtually volunteering watching women World York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Bowling Alone |
| Author | Robert D. Putnam |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, 2001 |
| ISBN | 0743219031, 9780743219037 |
| Length | 544 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / Social History History / United States / 20th Century Political Science / Public Policy / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |