Putnam wrote a Bible-sized tome about what’s wrong with America. Bowling Alone is about civic engagement and while I felt the charts and graphs were painfully boring, I liked his message and his methods were more thorough than anything of its kind. As a soc. major in college, I was able to get through it without trouble, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. The cover looks way more fun than the reading is. That being said, Putnam reaches some important conclusions and the book inspired me to, at the very least, bullshit with my neighbors once in a while, throw a block party or two and, if not drag myself to a public meeting, at least send letters to congressman when an issue concerns me. Putnam indites us all for a crime we are all guilty of: not really giving a crap about stuff and losing touch with our friends and neighbors.

The state of civic engagement.