‘Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community’ by Robert Putnam In his book, ‘Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community’, Robert Putnam discusses ways in which Americans have disengaged from political involvement and civil organisations. Much of his reasoned writing is corroborated by a collation of graphs and figures to explain the quality of American community. In this essay I shall evaluate the proof offered by Putnam to support his claim that community is in a decline in the U.S. To do this I must first provide a working definition of ‘community,’ a term with wide implications and varied definitions depending on the context of its usage. Putnam uses it as a synonym for social capital, a qualitative investment to create higher social cohesion through a civic virtue, rather than to describe a specific structure within society. Social capital ‘refers to the collective value of all 'social networks' and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other’ according to Putnam (Putnam, 1995. p.14). I will break down the idea of social capital into geographical locale and suburbanisation, association membership, acts of charity and religious affiliation to assess more easily Putnam’s evidence and suggest that community is not necessarily in decline, rather is adapting to a more modern pace of living. Geographical proximity to others is a factor that has altered in recent American history and a factor which Putnam claims is detrimental to cultural capital. Many residents of larger cities no longer live and work in the same urban area, choosing instead to live in suburbs an... ... middle of paper ... ... 2005. Bargy, Henry, 1902 – La Religion dans la Société aux États-Unis Berger, 1969 – Working-Class Suburbs, Cambrige University Press. Dewey, Richard, 1960 - The Rural-Urban Continuum – Real But Relatively Unimportant, Available online at: http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/7/7001352.pdf on 18th Nov 2005. Luckman, T, 1967 – The Invisible Religion, London Macmillan. Putnam, R 1995 Bowling Alone: The Collapse And Revival Of American Community, Simon and Schuster. Sampson, Robert J, 1999 – ‘What Community Supplies’ in Urban Problems and Community Development, Available online at: De Tocqueville, Alexis, 1954 – Democracy in America, vol. 1, Doubleday & Co. Wirth, 1964 – ‘Towards A Definition Of The Local Community’ in On Cities and Social Life, University of Chicago Press.
A Not So 50:50 Nation Culture Wars? The Myth of a Polarized America: Book Review The book Culture Wars? The Myth of a Polarized America by Morris P. Fiorina, Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope is a persuasive text regarding America and its division on political topics. In chapter one, Fiorina begins with a powerful quote from Pat Buchanan’s 1992 speech at the Republican National Convention, “There is a religious war…a cultural war as critical to the…nation…as the cold war…for this war is for the soul of America” (Fiorina et al. 1).
In Chapter 5, Covering America, Christopher Daly, delves into the history of journalism and discusses the various changes over time. These changes can be referred to as, Yellow Journalism and new journalism. Yellow Journalism is primarily based on exaggerations and sensationalism. Both Pulitzer and Hearst used rash headlines in order to sell more papers, if an effort to convince the public that the sinking of the USS Maine was done by the Spanish. Although, Yellow Journalism shocked its reader, it was not the only style of journalism. The penny press allowed for the creation of New Journalism.
In the book, “Rereading America” by, Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle, it starts off on page 210 describing a well educated Black Man of the times in 1960s. “Born Malcolm Little; Malcolm X was one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of Black America during the 1960s. A street hustler convicted of robbery in 1946, he spent seven years in prison, where he educated himself and became a disciple of Elijah Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam” (p.210). Here I want to focus on the strength of a single black man in the 60’s and what it was like to be uneducated as an African American. The many struggles of a black person in general were enough, but a black man had it hard.
Harold E. Stearns’ Critique of American Culture in the Book, Civilization in the United States
“I don’t think fate is a creature, or a lady, like some people say. It’s a tide of events sweeping us along. But I’m not a Fatalist, because I believe you can swim against it, and sometimes grasp the hands of the clock face and steal a few precious minutes. If you don’t you’re just cartwheeled along. Before you know it, the magic opportunity is lost, and for the rest of your life it lingers on in that part of your mind which dreams the very best dreams—taunting and tantalizing you with what might have been.” (from the film Flirting, 1990)
Community is like a Venn diagram. It is all about relations between a finite group of people or things. People have their own circles and, sometimes, these circles overlap one another. These interceptions are interests, common attitudes and goals that we share together. These interceptions bond us together as a community, as a Venn diagram. A good community needs good communication where people speak and listen to each other openly and honestly. It needs ti...
Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing written by; Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle, Eighth Edition, published April, 2007 by Bedford/St. Martin’s, is a textbook about writing and critical thinking. In the first chapter of Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing, “Thinking Critically, Challenging Cultural Myths”, the Authors begin by setting a relatable scene of what it’s like for a college student. How a new found independence can be overwhelming, especially with regards to critical thinking, showing that what we have learned, needs to be re-evaluated and that an open mind in essential. "What Is Critical Thinking" In this section of the chapter the editors explain what it means to be a critical thinker. They explain that critical thinking is not just studying dates and facts, but rather taking those facts and examining them. The editors then proceed by explaining how having an open mind, and taking others' perspectives into account when formulating our own opinions on what the author is trying to say to us is important. A critical thinker takes all aspects into account and reflects on personal experience as well. The editors also point out that different cultural experiences bring different opinions. They suggest that we need to become active learners, continuously questioning the meaning behind everything, testing not only the theories of others but also our own experiences and analyzing the text rather than going for the obvious. They show that thinking outside the box is the epitome of critical thinking. Basically, we need to step outside our comfort zones and what we have always been taught. The editors also suggest that we need to re-evaluate our per...
Our kids is a New York Times best selling novel by Robert D Putnam. It features in depth looks into the lives of Americans from varying social classes, and provides important data on the population of Americans and our disproportionate life opportunities. During his in debth looks into people’s lives, he shows us the way in which these broad social problems affect individual people, and really makes a moving argument that something is very wrong and something needs to be done about it. A couple of people that stood out to me were Lola and Lisa. Both girls are from very low income families residing in violent impoverished communities. These girls demonstrated how incredibly difficult it is to break out of poverty in our nation because of influences outside of their control. Lola demonstrated how our school systems restrict students in low income neighborhoods from getting good educations, while Lisa
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in the 1980’s? The crazy hair styles, the new and improved things that were being created made this time alive, and fun. To be born in the 1980’s would have a been a privilege, who wouldn’t want to be known as “The decade that defined…. “US!” The 1980s was a decade that began on January 1, 1980, and ended on December 31, 1989. This decade was a great social and economic time period for people living in the 80’s. The world was becoming more developed as well as everyone in it. This decade became the “Look at me” generation of status seekers. The 80’s made a new breed of billionaires and money makers. “The decade began with double-digit inflation, Reagan declared a war on drugs, Kermit didn't find it easy to be green, hospital costs rose, we lost many, many of our finest talents to AIDS which before the decade ended spread to black and Hispanic women, and unemployment rose,” according to Peggy Whitely of Lone Star College. Although this time seemed like all fun and games, there were many problems. People say we lost the meaning of “We” and it suddenly became “I.” Citizens were realizing that you couldn’t depend on others around you; they were coming up with new ideas, and inventions to allow things to be more efficient. Although the 1980’s suffered a huge change for the American people, the fads and fashion part of the people strived, as well as the inventions. These two things will be some of the most historical, yet fascinating parts of the 80’s generation in American History.
The poem “America” by Tony Hoagland reflects on how peoples’ minds are clouded by small-scale items, money, and the unimportance of those items. Metaphors and imagery are utilized to emphasize the unimportance of materialistic items in America. How America is being flooded with unnecessary goods. The poem uses examples of people to create an example and connection to the overall meaning.
The largest group in America is facing extinction. We are talking of course about the American middle class. In 1971 the American middle class population was 36% higher than the population of the lower class. However, today the middle class population is now only 22% higher than the lower class (McDill). This is only a 14% drop spread over 44 years. The major issue here is that while the middle class shrinks, the upper and lower classes are growing. Financial experts believe that soon the middle class will become nonexistent and America will be divided into two extremes, poverty and wealth. This issue has become so severe that the United States government has stepped in and created a “middle class task force” passed as part of the government “stimulus package” of 2009. However most experts including Kent McDill of the millionaires’ corner, Doyle McManus of the LA Times, Erik Kain of Forbes magazine believe that the government’s program is putting a knife in the middle class. They believe this because the government is taxing businesses until they are forced to leave America and go overseas. This, along with the rise of mechanical workers and ignorance of the issues facing the middle class led to the decreasing job market. Jobs in America will soon be split into either very high paying upper class jobs or very low paying jobs. This makes the job market a hit or miss in America. It is predicted that America will soon be either very rich or very poor with no middle ground.
The 1950s had it’s up and downs. The US economy grew a great amount following WWII. However, women were given stereotypes to portray, making a happy nuclear family and African Americans were segregated from the rest of the US citizens causing them to be left out. Therefore the growth of Suburbia had a negative impact socially, on America.
The word community has been changed to try to relate to how people live together today.
A Community can be defined as a group of people who don’t just live in the same area, but also share the same interests, experiences and often concerns about the area in which they live. Often when individuals have lived on a street or in an area for a while they become familiar with each other and the issues surrounding them. Children often attend the same schools and grow up together, again sharing similar experiences. In some instances adults may work together, and quite commonly all community members will share the same doctors, dentists, hospitals, health visitors and other public services and facilities.
Should the most selfish elite individual take heed and meditate on the ideology behind community, he/she may awaken to the fact that many persons looking after one person has more advantages and a better survival rate than one trying to preserve one. The needs of the one will never outweigh the needs of the collective group. In the end individuality inevitably leads to self-destruction; therefore, commitment to community is a requirement for contemporary Americans and vital to its survival.