Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
Robert D. Putnam

Published: 1995, Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0684832836

OUR REVIEW (Reviewed September 26, 2000, by Bill Pinkovitz)
As a brief article published in 1995 in the Journal of Democracy,"Bowling Alone" generated much more attention than the typical academic journal article. Putnam's premise that we are becoming increasingly disconnected from family, friends, and neighbors and that this disconnection comes at a high cost generated a lot of interest, discussion, and many fans. With fame however, came critics, who soon began questioning both Putnam's research methods and conclusions. In Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Putnam responds to his critics by expanding and validating his research and providing suggestions on how we can reconnect and realize the benefits of team bowling.

Putnam contends that the loss of social capital in America is real and significant and comes at a high price, both individually and collectively. For instance, Putnam states that communitites with less social capital have lower educational performance and more teenage pregnancy, child suicide, lower birth rates, and higher prenatal mortality rates.

Putnam recognizes that this is not a new phenomenon and that there is hope: Approximately one century ago, Americans faced a similar pattern...rapid industrialization, immigration, and urbanization...millions of Americans left friends, families, and social institutions behind...Americans were hugely inventive about creating the social institutuions to reconnect Americans in their changing circumstances.

Putnam adresses four fundamnetal questions about our social institutions:

1. What has been happening?

2. Why has it happened?

3. So what? What are the consequences?

4. What can we do about these it?

Are you a solitary bowler? At what cost? Is it worth joining the team? Only one way to find out.

Read a New York Times review of Bowling Alone