In the course of this research many colleagues and organizations generously shared data from projects of their own, including Julian Baym of Mediamark, Christopher J. Bosso, Steven Brint, Frank M. Bryan, Margot Cella of the Food Marketing Institute, Anne Costain, Russell Dalton, Ronald Inglehart, Ann Kaplan of the AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, Ichiro Kawachi, Bruce Kennedy, William G. Mayer, Peter Nardulli, Lisa Parmalee of the Roper Center at the University of Connecticut, John P. Robinson, Theda Skocpol, Robert Smith, M. Dane Waters, and Don Winter and J. Walker Smith of Yankelovich Partners. Staff members at scores of civic organizations were unstinting with their time and expertise, retrieving elusive records and filling in historical details. I particularly laud the skill, conscientiousness, and courtesy of nearly a score of experts in the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Library of Congress, and other government departments, who responded promptly and efficiently to inquiries from me and my research team and whose expertise and energy repeatedly put the lie to stereotypes about government officials.
I am grateful to many colleagues who in the course of this project have given me especially detailed and insightful help and advice, some (but, at my peril, not all) of which I have accepted. They include Joel Aberbach, Lorien Abroms, Robert Axelrod, Benjamin Barber, Daniel Bell, Lisa F. Berkman, Peter Berkowitz, Derek Bok, Harry Boyte, Xavier de Souza Briggs, Steven Brint, Richard Cavanagh, Mark Chaves, the late James S. Coleman, Susan B. Crawford, Russell Dalton, Jack Donahue, Michael A. Dover, Lewis Feldstein, Claudia Goldin, Sid Groeneman, Vaughn L. Grisham, Jr., Glenn Firebaugh, Robert Frank, Marc Galanter, Gerald Gamm, Peter Dobkin Hall, David Halpern, Russell Hardin, Frederick C. Harris, Scott Hemphill, Virginia Hodgkinson, Bonnie Honig, Howard Husock, Helen Ingram, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Christopher Jencks, Lawrence F. Katz, Morton Keller, Gary King, Robert Keohane, Robert Klitgaard, Steven Knack, Margaret Levi, Seymour Martin Lipset, Glenn Loury, Robert Luskin, Doug McAdam, Eileen McDonagh, Steven Macedo, Jane Mansbridge, Peter Marsden, John D. McCarthy, David G. Myers, Carl Milofsky, Martha Minow, Mark Moore, Katherine Newman, Richard Niemi, Susan Olzak, Elinor Ostrom, Virginia Park, David Pinto-Duschinsky, Jane Piliavin, Fred Pryor, Wendy Rahn, Paul Resnick, Tom Rochon, Nancy Rosenblum, Robert I. Rotberg, Peter Rowe, Kay Schlozman, Juliet Schor, Dhavan Shah, Dietlind Stolle, Janet Topolsky, Eric Uslaner, Sidney Verba, Robert Vos, Mark Warren, Margaret Weir, Barry Wellman, Edwenna Werner, Grant Williams, Shirley Williams, Thad Williamson, John Wilson, Alan Wolfe, Michael Woolcock, Robert Wuthnow, Alan Zaslavsky, and Alan Zuckerman.
In addition to these professional colleagues, students too numerous to single out spotted deficiencies in my argument and evidence, increased my peripheral vision by alerting me to unexpectedly relevant ideas in adjacent disciplines, and (above all) strengthened my confidence that (despite what might be too easily inferred from some evidence in this book) the ingenuity and idealism of the younger generations represent a potent resource for civic renewal.
This research turned out to be substantially more demanding than I had envisioned, and one grievous consequence was that I repeatedly fell short of my responsibilities on several related projects. Nevertheless, my collaborators on these projects showed great forbearance, while continuing to supply extraordinary intellectual stimulation and personal friendship. I especially want to express my deep appreciation to Jean-Claude Casanova, Charles Heck, and the late Seizaburo Sato, collaborators in the Trilateral Commission project on Democracy in the Contemporary World; to Eva Cox, Peter Hall, Takashi Inoguchi, Claus Offe, Victor M. Pérez-Díaz, Bo Rothstein, Dirk Rumberg, Theda Skocpol, Volker Then, Jean-Pierre Worms, and Robert Wuthnow, my collaborators and supporters on the Bertelsmann Science Foundation project on the dynamics of social capital in Europe, North America, and East Asia; and to my close friend and colleague, Susan J. Pharr, who assumed leadership of the Ford-sponsored project on Democracy in the Trilateral World. Meanwhile my faculty colleagues in Harvard’s Department of Government and Kennedy School of Government challenged and enriched my research, often in ways of which they were unaware, while bearing with gracious collegiality the burdens that I let slide while immersed in this seemingly endless project.
The project was successively hosted by the Weatherford Center for International Affairs, headed by Jorge I. Dominguez, and the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, headed by Alan Altshuler. I have enjoyed the personal friendship of Jorge and of Alan for more than two decades, and each has been unstinting in his support of this research. I am also grateful to Deans Jeremy R. Knowles and Joseph S. Nye for both intellectual and organizational encouragement.
In the course of this research I benefited almost beyond belief from the hard work and expertise of colleagues who have kept the operation moving forward, including Cindy Adams, Lisa Adams, Annette Mann Bourne, Jeffrey Boutwell, Alicia Carrasquillo, Zoe Clarkwest, Anne Emerson, Kate Fitzpatrick, Sarah Hagan, Roger Labrie, Steve Minicucci, Marisa Murtagh, Erin Quinn, Julissa Reynoso, Karen Rogers, Barbara Salisbury, Corinne Schelling, and Katie Tenney.
Despite all the help I have just enjoyed recounting, this book and the associated efforts to contribute to a renaissance of American democracy would not have come to fruition without the extraordinary role played by my two professional partners, Louise Kennedy and Tom Sander. They turned a chaos of good intentions into a marvelous adventure.
When Tom joined the project, I told him that someone needed to wake up each morning worrying about how to mobilize America’s civic energies, and it was not going to be me. Intensely intelligent, driven by an outsize civic conscience, Tom has labored for four frenzied years on every aspect of this project. Everything about the Saguaro Seminar—from its inscrutable title to its roster of distinguished participants, from its exhaustively planned meetings to its final report—is Tom’s handiwork. This book, too, bears indelible marks of his energy and creativity. When I mused one afternoon about trends in lawyering, for example, he worked day and night to track down numbers, catalog interpretations, and adjudicate discrepancies. Without authorization, he carved out a role as the project’s whistle-blower, looking behind every generalization to see if I had short-circuited the truth. He is a wonderful colleague.
For five extraordinary years Louise has managed my professional life, a bedrock of stable good sense, exquisite tact, and fabled loyalty. Masquerading mostly under the innocent-sounding title of “executive assistant,” she has masterminded a score of conferences and workshops, overseen half a hundred research assistants, kept the books for a multimillion-dollar budget, designed and executed media strategy, soothed ruffled feathers, buffered my enthusiasms and despairs, planned and replanned hundreds of trips, strategized about social change, reminded me of my manners, and (on the side) directed the Saguaro Seminar’s work on culture and the arts and designed our Web site. Her judgment on matters large and small is impeccable. Most important, she, like Tom, never faltered in the conviction that we were on a worthy mission.
Not every author is as fortunate as I in having a loving and supportive family. Christin Campbell, Mario Perez, and Jonathan and Lara Putnam good-naturedly ribbed me about how long it was taking (as did everyone else I know!) at the same time that they offered innumerable insights and words of encouragement. My mother, Ruth Putnam, and my late parents-in-law, Louis and Zelda Werner, gracefully accepted my absences, while providing extraordinary exemplars of “the long civic generation.” In uncounted ways my wife, Rosemary, enabled my addiction to this project. She drew on her professional experience as librarian to catalog the tens of thousands of documents, manuscripts, reports, and clippings that the project accumulated. At the same time Rosemary endured—almost always with good cheer—the fact that I spent most of the past five years in our house on Frost Pond, New Hampshire, working on this project, while she commuted each weekend. When the going was difficult, she buoyed my spirits, and when my ego soared, she reminded me to call my mom. Everyone needs a best friend; I am blessed to be married to mine.
F
rost Pond, N.H.
December 1999
Index
Page numbers in italics refer to figures and tables.
AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), 149, 150, 151
AARP (American Association of Retired Persons), 50, 51–52, 170, 343
ABA (American Bar Association), 83, 84, 85
abolitionist movement, 52, 68
abortion, 43, 68, 148, 162, 164
academic societies, see professional societies
accountants, 83
action dramas, 243
Adams, Henry, 373
Addams, Jane, 373, 393, 394
aerobic classes, 110
affirmative action, 146
affluence, see wealth
African Americans, 23, 185, 186, 280, 309, 328, 375–76, 412
association building by, 389–91
civil rights struggle and, 18, 78, 148, 152, 153, 156, 158, 361
enfranchisement of, 32–33
middle-class, 313
religious participation of, 68–69, 76–77, 313, 321, 362, 392
social networks of, 321, 322, 343
social trust expressed by, 138, 142
see also race
age, 23, 199, 205, 247–49, 333, 419
informal social connections and, 94, 95, 104, 105, 107–8, 195
mass media and, 218, 220, 224, 228, 229, 235
social protest and, 162, 164–65, 165
volunteering, philanthropy and, 119, 120, 129–31, 183, 248–51
see also generational change; young people
aggression, television and, 231, 233, 234, 237
agriculture, 27, 368, 406
AIDS, 131
AIDS Action Council, 170
air brake, 368
air traffic controllers strike, 82
AJLA (American Junior League Association), 270
Alabama, 375
Al-Anon, 150
alcohol, 315, 327, 331, 396
see also drugs, illegal; temperance movement
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), 149, 150, 151
Allen, Woody, 60
All in the Family, 96, 245
All Our Kin (Stack), 316–17
alt.politics.homosexuality, 173
altruism, 27, 116, 119, 120–22, 134–35, 138, 205, 243, 316, 322, 376, 381, 404
see also philanthropy; volunteering
AMA (American Medical Association), 83, 84, 85, 279
Amazon.com, 376
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), 50, 51–52, 170, 343
American Automobile Association, 52, 142
American Bar Association (ABA), 83, 84, 85
American Bowling Congress, 112
American Camping Association, 393
American College of Anesthesiology, 85
American College of Surgeons, 85
American Contract Bridge League, 104
American Dental Association, 84, 268
American Federation of Labor, 392
American Institute of Architects, 83, 84, 85
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 84
Americanization, 371, 375–76, 381
American Junior League Association (AJLA), 270
American Legion, 383
American Management Association, 92
American Medical Association (AMA), 83, 84, 85, 279
American Nurses Association (ANA), 84, 85
American Protective Association, 375
American Red Cross, 117, 255, 268, 269, 388
American Revolution, 24
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 83, 84, 268
Americans’ Use of Time Project, 424
Amish, 234–35, 264
Amnesty International, 159
amusement parks, 217
Amway, 322
ANA (American Nurses Association), 84, 85
anarchy, 173
Ancient Order of United Workmen, 268, 383, 389
Anderson, Elijah, 313, 314
Anderson, Sherwood, 24
Andrews, Kenneth, 153
animal rights movement, 148
Ann Arbor News, 28
Annie E. Casey Foundation, 296
anonymity, 173, 177, 307, 342, 411
anti-Semitism, 271, 361
antitrust regulations, 398
Appalachia, 412
architects, 83, 85, 86
Argyle, Michael, 239–40
Aristotle, 115, 404
Arizona, 163
Arrow, Kenneth, 288
Asia, immigration from, 76
Asian Americans, 209, 271, 371, 376
ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers), 83, 84, 268
Associated Press, 170
Association for Investment Management and Research, 388
Association for Retarded Citizens, 149, 151
AT&T, 394
atherosclerosis, 327
Atlanta, Ga., 283, 322
Atlantic Monthly, 350
Audubon Society, see National Audubon Society
Australia, 236
automobiles, 33, 138, 211–14, 217, 376
ownership of, 208, 212, 273
time spent alone in, 213, 407–8
autonomy, 258, 335
babbittry, 350–51, 355
babies, see children
baby boom generation, 25, 26, 34, 104, 110, 129, 132, 133, 187, 250–54, 257–59, 261, 357, 404
education of, 255, 257, 258
expectations for, 18, 250, 258
malaise in, 262, 263, 334–35
media consumption among, 219–21, 225–26, 251–54
reciprocity and trust expressed by, 140–41, 251–54, 256, 258–59, 275
religious participation among, 73, 79, 250, 251–54, 258
see also generational change
Bagehot, Walter, 351–52, 357
ballot initiatives, 163–64, 163
Baltimore, Md., 305
Baltimore Museum of Art, 412
banking industry, 137, 138, 282–83, 321, 322
Baptists, 397
bar associations, 27, 80, 195, 255
barbecues, see picnics and barbecues
Barlow, John Perry, 172
Barrows, Robert, 374, 379
bars, 27, 93, 94, 96, 97, 101, 102, 107
Barton, Clara, 268
baseball, 109, 113, 217, 237
basketball, 109, 113
Batman, 269
Baumgartner, M. P., 210
Beatles, 334
Beecher, Henry Ward, 414
Beito, David, 389
Bell, Alexander Graham, 166
Bell, Daniel, 17
Bender, Eugene I., 151
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, 54, 55, 268, 383
Berkeley, Calif., 152
Berkman, Lisa, 327
Berla, Nancy, 303
Berlin Wall, collapse of, 338
Berra, Yogi, 20
Berrien, Jenny, 317–18
Berthoff, Rowland, 390
Berwyn, Ill., 15
bicycling, 112
Big Brothers and Sisters, 393
biotech industry, 325
Birkerts, Sven, 245–46
birth rate, 188
Blackman, Toni, 412
black market, 271
blacks, see African Americans
Blacksburg, Va., 177
blood donors, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 131, 137, 186, 231, 237, 249, 340
blood pressure, 327
B’nai B’rith, 54, 389, 390
body language, 175
Bonchek, Mark, 173
Bonfire of the Vanities, The (Wolfe), 20
books:
television vs., 230
see also reading and study groups
Boorstin, Daniel, 169
Boschma, Andy, 28
Bosnian war, 361
Bosso, Christopher, 157, 158, 159
Boston, Mass., 186, 311–12, 371, 398, 412
route 128 corridor and, 324–2
5
Boston Red Sox, 113
Boston 10-Point Coalition, 68, 318
Bourdieu, Pierre, 19
Bowden, Sue, 240
bowling leagues, 17, 111–13, 112, 150, 178, 183, 245, 255, 266, 268, 281, 315, 411
boycotts, 152, 397
Boyer, Paul, 381
Boys Clubs, 383, 393
Boy Scouts, 54, 55, 117, 268, 269, 278, 329, 388, 393, 401, 406
Boyte, Harry, 408
Brace, Charles Loring, 373
Brady, Henry, 35
branch firms, 187
Brehm, John, 238
bridge clubs, 94, 103–4, 105
Brokaw, Tom, 221, 287
Brooklyn, N.Y., 321–22
Brown, John Seeley, 172, 174, 176
Bryk, Anthony S., 304
building permits, 324
Bureau of the Budget, 398
burial associations, 390
Burkina Faso, 325
Burt, Ronald S., 20, 321
businesses, 368, 369
incorporation of, 324
social trust and, 319, 323–25
see also corporations
busing controversy, 362
busyness, 187, 189–203, 205, 215, 247, 283
volunteering and, 189–92, 200–201
working women and, 190, 194–203
cable television, 216, 244
news on, 221
see also television
California, 163, 164, 210, 211, 271, 314–15, 329
California, University of, at Los Angeles (UCLA), 259–60
California Commission on Campaign Financing, 163–64
Call to Renewal, 410
campaign finance reform, 412
see also election campaigns
Campfire Girls, 393
Canada, immigration from, 371
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), 235–36
BOWLING ALONE Page 78