Better Together: Restoring the American Community

By Lewis Feldstein and Robert D. Putnam

Book Overview

From the acclaimed author of Bowling Alone comes the story of people who are reweaving the social fabric across America by building local communities and revitalizing our civic spirit.

In his acclaimed book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam describes the United States as a nation in which we have become increasingly disconnected from one another, where our social structures have disintegrated. He asks an important question: what can we do to end the atrophy of America's civic vitality, and what can bring us together again?

Now, in Better Together, Putnam and Lewis Feldstein examine how people across the country are inventing new forms of social activism and community renewal. An arts program in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, brings together shipyard workers and their gentrified neighbors; a deteriorating, crime-ridden neighborhood in Boston is transformed by a determined group of civic organizers; an online community in San Francisco allows its members to connect with each other; in Wisconsin schoolchildren learn how to participate in the political process to benefit their town.

As our society grows increasingly diverse, it's more important than ever to grow social capital, whether by traditional or more innovative means. The people profiled in Better Together are doing just that, and their stories illustrate the extraordinary power of social networks for enabling people to improve their lives and the lives of those around them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743235479
• ISBN13: 9780743235471
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Good portrait of people working together

Robert Putnam dissected what might be the fraying of American community in "Bowling Alone". Here he and co-authors Lewis Feldstein and Don Cohen look at 12 examples of community. It's quite interesting to see how, for example, branch libraries became social hubs in Chicago. The vignette of CraigsList is dated only a few years later and, in any event, it is difficult to accept CraigsList as as true example of community. It may have been in its earliest days, but is certainly not now. The depiction of Portland may be a bit blindsided in that Portland's activists seem to be against anything and everything, more like Babbit's than enablers of any kind. On the whole, though, it's an interesting collection of community endeavors. Not truly a complement to "Bowling Alone", but rather a standalone effort. Jerry

Let's get "Better Together"

No matter your interest, religious, political, environment, academic, left, right, or center, if you have interest in seeing things change (or stay the same), Better Together: Restoring the American Community by Robert Putnam and Lewis M. Feldstein, with Don Cohen (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003) is a must read.Better Together tells the stories of twelve different groups: from a community organization to a church, as well as a dance group and a web site, from a union to a branch library, a Fortune 500 corporation and a neighborhood group, to name a few. The stories hold in common the building up of community, of social capital. It is the best book of general interest that I have read in more than a year.Putnam addresses a critical aspect of how we are brought together as citizens and neighbors. I cannot stress enough how highly I recommend this book.