Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.” Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation. At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.

This book shows how bowling has evolved to become an indelible facet of popular culture. In addition to bowling's role in art and media, this book delves into the sport's far-reaching implicationss throughout history. Includes never-before-published photos and artworks that illustrate the sport's march through time.

Addresses key problems in contemporary life, and raises important questions about our growing awareness of the limits of contemporary ways of living with modern economies and modern religion. This book explores possible alternatives to such capitalism.

Richard Mouw was first drawn to Abraham Kuyper’s writings about public life in the turbulent 1960s. As he struggled to find the right Christian stance toward big social issues such as the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, Mouw discovered Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism — and, with it, a robust vision of active Christian involvement in public life that has guided him ever since. In this “short and personal introduction” Mouw sets forth Kuyper’s main ideas on Christian cultural discipleship, including his views on sphere sovereignty, the antithesis, common grace, and more. Mouw looks at ways to update — and, in some places, even correct — Kuyper’s thought as he applies it to such twenty-first-century issues as religious and cultural pluralism, technology, and the challenge of Islam.

During the past quarter century, free-market capitalism was recognized not merely as a successful system of wealth creation, but as the key determinant of the health of political and cultural democracy. Now, renowned British journalist and historian Godfrey Hodgson takes aim at this popular view in a book that promises to become one of the most important political histories of our time. More Equal Than Others looks back on twenty-five years of what Hodgson calls "the conservative ascendancy" in America, demonstrating how it has come to dominate American politics. Hodgson disputes the notion that the rise of conservatism has spread affluence and equality to the American people. Quite the contrary, he writes, the most distinctive feature of American society in the closing years of the twentieth century was its great and growing inequality. He argues that the combination of conservative ideology and corporate power and dominance by mass media obsessed with lifestyle and celebrity have caused America to abandon much of what was best in its past. In fact, he writes, income and wealth inequality have become so extreme that America now resembles the class-stratified societies of early twentieth-century Europe. More Equal Than Others addresses a broad range of issues, with chapters on politics, the new economy, immigration, technology, women, race, and foreign policy, among others. A fitting sequel to the author's critically acclaimed America In Our Time, More Equal Than Others is not only an outstanding synthesis of history, but a trenchant commentary on the state of the American Dream.

Whatever your role, and whatever size or type of library, the principles outlined here can support anyone working to build a strong community of engaged, interested, and satisfied library users.

An ethical framework and vision of free time for social good—and how to achieve it. In the work-centric culture of today’s world, it is easy to view free time as indulging laziness or extravagance.Conor M. Kelly, however, argues that free time possesses enormous potential for good if exercised in accordance with theological ethics. By examining pursuits such as television, digital media use, sports, and travel from the perspective of Catholic solidarity, Kelly demonstrates how individuals can choose new free time activities or restructure current pursuits to be more relational and socially conscious. The first book to use the Catholic theological tradition to explore the importance of free time, The Fullness of Free Time addresses a crucial topic in the ethics of everyday life, providing a useful framework for scholars and students of moral theology, philosophy, and political theory, as well as anyone hoping to make their free time more meaningful.

Modern republicanism nevertheless turns liberal and opts for the contract between independent beings as fiat of the political world." "But the Contract is not self-sufficient, since anyone who looks back to their roots will come to the narration of reciprocal recognition. The Covenant falls similarly short, as those who forget the parable of independence may well have a disregard for justice." "In a dialogue with the most relevant philosophical currents of the age, the book proposes an articulation of politics, ethics and religion appropriate for our own time, starting from the contract between independent beings and from the reciprocal recognition of those who know themselves to be human."--Jacket.

When it first appeared three decades ago, Raymond Seidelman's provocative study of the history of political science both attracted a great deal of attention and generated vibrant controversy. Where prior studies of the history of political science had concentrated on the evolution of the scientific study of politics, Seidelman placed his focus on the tenuous relationship between the scientific study of politics and the real world of American democracy. Examining paired sets of political science luminaries over a century, he finds recurrent hopes that a "science of politics" can be a "science for politics," and recurrent frustrations that neither elites nor democratic publics respond to the findings of political science or defer to its claims of scientific authority. Analyzing the reasons for political science's limited impact on democratic reform, Seidelman raises the prospect that the progressive dreams of American political science, rising and falling over the course of a century, may finally be exhausted. For this new edition, Bruce Miroff and Stephen Skowronek have written a foreword that relates the genesis of the book and the career of the late Ray Seidelman, while James Farr, a distinguished scholar of political science history, has contributed an extensive afterword. Whether readers concur with or dispute Seidelman's conclusions about the practical significance of political science, they will be challenged by the scope and power of Disenchanted Realists. The book invites a new generation of political scientists to examine the problematic development of the discipline they practice and to reflect on the public meanings of what they do in their own careers.

Discover the deepest reasons people give to nonprofits—and how fundraisers can tap into donors’ most potent motivations. In The Quest for Belonging: How the Most Effective Nonprofit Leaders Understand the Psychology of Giving, Jeremy Beer draws from the latest social science to explain the primacy of identity—the need to know and affirm who we are—and belonging—the need to belong to something bigger than ourselves—as motivations for giving. Beer argues that the better a nonprofit organization can speak to donors’ needs to construct and maintain an identity and to belong to something larger than themselves, the more successful the nonprofit will be in attracting supporters to its mission. He explains how nonprofit executives and fundraisers can effectively engage a donor’s identity and provide a sense of belonging in three powerful ways: by telling stories, by building genuine relationships, and by giving donors positive experiences with the organization and with one another. The Quest for Belonging is packed with trenchant, useful, and sometimes surprising observations gleaned from Beer’s interviews with highly successful fundraisers, scholars, writers, and nonprofit leaders. This book is a trove of practical advice as well as a paradigm-shifting work on the psychology of giving and the art and craft of fundraising.