Join our forum online. Mr. Bowling Alone, the Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam is back now with his retested theory. Americans aren't joining, volunteering, and participating in civic culture anymore, he says. They're not having picnics, they're not going to church and they're not voting. They may be bowling, but they're bowling alone.
Isolation is as big a factor as smoking.
Putnam's Home Page. An article by Robert Putnam . Journal of Democracy , January 1995. Civic Engagement in America . A series in 9 parts.