Bowling Alone - by Robert D Putnam (Paperback)

About the Book

"With a new preface and afterword by the author"--Cover.

Book Synopsis

*The basis for the documentary Join or Die--now streaming on Netflix!*

Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet--the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today's fractured America.

Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called "a very important book" and Putnam, "the de Tocqueville of our generation."

Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans' changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it's with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the "social capital" that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection--as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation.

At the time of its publication, Putnam's then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.

Review Quotes

"Bowling Alone provides important new data on the trends in civic engagement and social capital. . . . It is a formidable achievement. It will henceforth be impossible to discuss these issues knowledgeably without reading Putnam's book and thinking about it."--Paul Starr "The New Republic"

"A mountainous, momentous work . . . . [Putnam's] put his finger on an important sociological development."--David Nyhan "The Boston Globe"

"An ambitious book . . . Bowling Alone is a prodigious achievement. Mr. Putnam's scholarship is wide-ranging, his intelligence luminous, his tone modest, his prose unpretentious and frequently funny."-- "The Economist"

"Crammed with statistics and analyses that seek to document civic decline in the United States. . . . Bowling Alone is to be commended for stimulating awareness of civic engagement and providing a wealth of data on trends in contemporary America."
--Francis Fukuyama "The Washington Post"

"Putnam is technically a Harvard social scientist, but a better description might be poet laureate of civil society."--Jason DeParle "The New York Times"