bowling alone · putnam

Robert Putnam's 1995 essay in the Journal of Democracy, later a book, documented the decline of American civic life since the 1960s: falling membership in clubs, churches, unions and leagues, more people bowling and fewer bowling together. It made 'social capital' a household term and revived Tocqueville's argument that democracy depends on associations.

Read in the Roots of American Order summer seminar, June 2026.