Robert Putnam We successfully weathered that storm once, and we can do it again Perhaps the single most important lesson we can hope to gain from this analysis is that in the past America has experienced a storm of unbridled individualism in our culture,…
Robert Putnam A more “we” society During these decades Americans became - perhaps more than ever before - focused on what we could accomplish together. And this sense of shared responsibility and collective progress was not…
Robert Putnam A troubling similarity The United States in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s was startlingly similar to today. Inequality, political polarization, social dislocation, and cultural narcissism prevailed - all accompanied, as they are now,…
Robert Putnam An increasingly cutthroat social and economic contest Some Americans have reacted to these many forms of dislocation by turning on their perceived adversaries in an increasingly cutthroat social and economic contest. Racism and gender discrimination persist and…
Robert Putnam A drift toward self-centeredness Indeed, many of the corporate titans who dominate the American imagination live by an ideology of individualism that barely masks selfishness and an air of superiority. A philosophy of supreme…
Robert Putnam Corporations’ outsized power But the departure from our past is visible not only in rising inequality and resultant pessimism - it is also apparent in the institutions that increasingly define our nation. Corporate…
Robert Putnam Prosperity at a cost Were Alexis de Tocqueville to travel to America once again - further on in our national story - what might he find? Would America fulfill its promise of balancing individual…
