Once we bowled in leagues, usually after work-but no more. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified with this brilliant volume, which The Economist hailed as “a prodigious achievement.”

Drawing on vast new data that show Us citizens’ changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have grown to be increasingly disconnected in one another and how social structures-whether they become PTA, church, or political parties-have disintegrated. Before publication of this groundbreaking work, nobody had therefore deftly diagnosed the harm that these damaged bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic wellness, nor got anyone exalted their fundamental power in developing a society that’s happy, healthful, and safe.

Like defining functions from days gone by, like the Lonely Crowd as well as the Affluent Culture, and just like the works of C. Wright Mills and Betty Friedan, Putnam’s Bowling Alone has discovered a central turmoil at the heart of our society and suggests what we are able to do.