Can We Become a Country of “Joiners”?

The New Republic

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Mixed Factuality

Independent: Win McCormack

Can We Become a Country of “Joiners”?

At the turn of the century, the Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam published Bowling Alone, a data-heavy book about the collapse of civic participation in the United States—exemplified by the decline of participation in bowling leagues—and its baleful consequences for American democracy. Now, nearly a quarter-century after the publication of Putnam’s landmark book, and with many of the trends he identified showing no signs of abating, I s…