"Bowling Alone" (Book Author: Robert R. Putnam)
By: David Dumesh
College Now Course - BSS 1
The social science book "Bowling Alone" by author Robert D. Putnam talks about how people in America have become disconnected
socially in recent times. Throughout most of the book, there are many concrete examples
given to support this claim. The author uses many graphs and charts to support his
point, most of them dealing with volunteering and joining organizations. The wide
range of charts even includes the amount of blood donors in a given year. In all of
the charts present, there is a steady decline visible leading up to the present day.
The book is divided into various sections dealing with the collapse of the American
community. These sections include: "Trends in Civic Engagement and Social Capital",
and "What is to Be Done?" with sections in between detailing how and why this collapse
of society affects us.
Throughout "Trends and Civic Engagement and Social Capital", the topics range from
political, civic, and religious participation to altruism, philanthropy, and volunteering.
The first three topics talk about how Americans are slowly decreasing in performing
their religious, political, and civil duties. A specific example of this is seen on
page 71 where a graph shows a steady downfall in the general church attendance from
1940 to 1999. Surveys suggested that America was one of the most religiously observant
developed countries in the world, yet many sociologists began to question this. The
last three topics deal with altruism, volunteering, and philanthropy. These topics
are basically about our "readiness to help others". Similar to the past three, these
issues also show a steady decline in our willingness to give to charity. On page 124,
there is an excellent chart titled "The Rise and Fall of Philanthropic Generosity"
dated between the years 1929 and 1998. It shows that after its peak in the 1960's,
the total giving by living individuals as percentage of national income took a downfall.
All these topics having one important element in common; they all show a sharp decrease
in the participation of the community, whether it deals with religious participation,
or volunteering.
The middle sections of the book include topics such as the how and why the collapse
of American community affects us directly. Chapter 10 of the book mentions how social
bonds and civic engagements took a nosedive in America over the last third of the
20th century. This chapter in particular talks about how most of our social networks
have basically atrophied, or withered away. It is stated that civic disengagement
affects virtually all sectors of the American society over the last several decades,
and all in equal measure. Chapter 16 deals with the social capital. In the chapter,
it is written that social capital is steadily eroding, and in fact, very dramatically
over the past couple of generations. Much of this evidence comes from analysis of
the differences in social capital and civic engagement across the fifty states. On
the map on page 293, social capital is seen as very high in secluded Midwestern states,
while it is very low in populated areas such as our tri-state area.
Throughout the last section of the book "What is to be Done?" there are explanations
to this questions. On chapter 23, the gilded age and the progressive era are mentioned.
The gilded age is defined as deceptively attractive on the outside, while on the inside
it is actually an age of depression. The Gilded age and the Progressive Era were the
decades at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century,
where numerous technological, economic, and social changes transformed American life.
Between 1870 and 1900, America evolved from a rural and localized traditional society,
to a modem and industrialized urban nation. While this is seen as generally a beneficial
thing to the country, there were many adverse effects, such as the decrease in civic
engagements. There were, however, many social capital innovations, such as different
associations, between the time period 1870-1920. On page 388, a graph lists the different
founding dates of contemporary US associations. The climax is in 1910, while the lowest
point on the graph is the present day. This graph is a paradigm for the civic engagements
going on in today's society, since it shows an all-time low for the present day.
In conclusion, throughout the informative book "Bowling Alone", by Robert Putnam,
there is a constant message of the collapse of America's communities. Many different
factors are responsible for this, including the urbanization of our nation. There
is a lot less social interaction between people, and the general fabric of our society
is breaking apart. There are many examples given throughout the book that prove this
point. The examples are all clearly conveyed through numerous charts and graphs. The
author's main message is that the collapse of American society is something that affects
us all, and we must start becoming active in our community again.
