by Robert Putnam. Swift Press, 2020. 571 pages
Robert Putnam earned deserved fame two decades ago for writing
Bowling Alone, in which he charted the decline in community and social capital which had occurred in America in the latter half of the 20th century.
Since then, he has written other interesting books on related issues including his most recent work —
The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again — which came out in late 2020.
Putnam and his collaborator Shaylyn Romney Garrett cover familiar ground here in their focus on community and draw a parallel between America’s current social and economic divisions and the situation which existed there at the close of the “Gilded Age” more than a century ago.