This book is not an easy read but I successfully used it three or four times in ad hoc reading groups with high school juniors and seniors who realized they need to upgrade their reading skills to handle junior college work and need some coaching. The subject matter leads to quite serious discussions and, rather than my usual practice of meeting only a couple of times with a group, we went three times with this book.
The author is well qualified (remember he previously published 'Bowling Alone') and provides the evidence of how we got to our current 'low point' of lower SES families having limited social mobility today. He grew up in Port Clinton, Ohio, and in the 1950s it was like many towns of 'The American Dream,' "a place that offered decent opportunity for all the kids in town, whatever their background (1)." Dr. Putnam does not claim all was perfect but finds that income inequality is a major cause of the opportunity inequality found in the families interviewed for this research. He believes that better-off people have to do more to assist the struggling folks.
Based on my experience in LA County, I criticize his failure to mention the propensity of immigrants and their first, second generation descendants to refuse to work alongside 'others' and to shower neighborhoods with trach, graffiti, drug sales, street sales, remesas, etc. etc. when the problems of automation and free trade are so troublesome.
No preface or forward. Footnotes included, excellent references to journal studies, good index.
The author is well qualified (remember he previously published 'Bowling Alone') and provides the evidence of how we got to our current 'low point' of lower SES families having limited social mobility today. He grew up in Port Clinton, Ohio, and in the 1950s it was like many towns of 'The American Dream,' "a place that offered decent opportunity for all the kids in town, whatever their background (1)." Dr. Putnam does not claim all was perfect but finds that income inequality is a major cause of the opportunity inequality found in the families interviewed for this research. He believes that better-off people have to do more to assist the struggling folks.
Based on my experience in LA County, I criticize his failure to mention the propensity of immigrants and their first, second generation descendants to refuse to work alongside 'others' and to shower neighborhoods with trach, graffiti, drug sales, street sales, remesas, etc. etc. when the problems of automation and free trade are so troublesome.
No preface or forward. Footnotes included, excellent references to journal studies, good index.
