num_pages: 464
description: An eminent political scientists brilliant analysis of economic social and political trends over the past century demonstrating how we have gone from an individualistic I society to a more communitarian We society and then back againand how we can learn from that experience to turn the corner towards a stronger more unified nation from the author of Bowling Alone and Our Kids. Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissismAmericans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But weve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s America was highly individualistic starkly unequal fiercely polarized and deeply fragmented just as it is today. However as the twentieth century opened America becameslowly unevenly but steadilymore egalitarian more cooperative more generous; a society more focused on our responsibilities to one another and less focused on our narrower self-interest. Sometime during the 1960s however our nation turned another corner and all of these trends reversed leaving us in todays disarray. In a sweeping overview of more than a century of history drawing on his inimitable combination of statistical analysis and storytelling Robert Putnam analyzes a remarkable confluence of trends that brought us from an I society to a We society and then back again. He draws inspiring lessons for our time from an earlier era when a dedicated group of reformers righted the ship putting us on a path to becoming a society once again based on community. Engaging revelatory and timely this is Putnams most ambitious work yet a fitting capstone to a brilliant career.
language: English
title: The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
publisher: Simon  Schuster