Book Rec of the Day 3/26/2007

Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, made a huge splash with a little article called “Bowling Alone” in the Journal of Democracy. The controversial, landmark article, which noted that although more people are bowling, league membership has fallen by almost half in the last twenty years, explains how social involvement strengthens communities, government, and democracy. “A prodigious achievement,” says The Economist.

BOWLING ALONE: THE COLLAPSE AND REVIVAL OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY, by Robert D. Putnam (Simon & Schuster, 2001)