Robert D. Putnam - The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

Praise for THE UPSW I NG

Robert Putnam has long been our indispensable guide to contemporary America. His books on social capital, on religion, and on children are essential reading. The Upswing is another masterpiece; it weaves seemingly unrelated stories into a grand master narrative of the last hundred years. A triumph.

Professor Sir Angus Deaton, FBA HonFRSE, Nobel Prize winner and coauthor of Deaths of Despair

In the most ambitious and compelling of his several exemplary books, Robert Putnam masterfully recasts the history of our country from the Gilded Age to the present. Marshaling data from across such disparate dimensions as residential choices, congressional voting patterns, film and song titles, and even baby-naming and pronoun usage, Putnam builds a phenomenally data-rich portrait of America. He robustly and convincingly demonstrates a startling congruence of trends in the economic, political, social, and cultural realms as they all moved in benign synchronicity toward greater inclusion, equality, engagement, and comity from the Progressive Era until the 1960s, but thereafter morphed in malign unison into todays toxic world of metastasizing self-centeredness, division, distrust, and dysfunction. Putnam concludes with a communitarian catechism about what we must now do to get back on that upward path toward the kind of country that all Americans must surely prefer to the one they now inhabit. The Upswing is a singularly illuminating book and a clarion call to action.

David M. Kennedy, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus, Stanford University

Americans who feel we are now living in the worst of times will see their spirits lifted and their hopes raised after reading The Upswing. Based on a careful analysis of data trends, Robert D. Putnams compelling narratives reveal why we should take inspiration and instruction from how Americas first Gilded Age, a period of despair much like today, turned into the Progressive Era, which moved America in a positive direction for over half a century. The Upswing is a must-read for those who wonder how we can once again reclaim our nations promise.

William Julius Wilson, Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

No one understands the United States better than Bob Putnam, and no one else could have written this essential book. The Upswing brings together his vast knowledge, love of data, storytelling ability, and passion. Its an astonishing work that reminds Americans we are a great people, shows us what we can accomplish when we come together, and makes clear that we need to do so again. Now.

Andrew McAfee, MIT scientist, author of More from Less, and coauthor of The Second Machine Age

The Upswing is a revelationtailor-made for this polarized age and destined to be a central reference point for urgent debates and determined activism. Here, one of Americas most renowned public intellectuals gives us a new understanding of our history and a profoundly insightful roadmap for a future we can only create together. Squarely facing race and gender inequity, Putnam and Garrett shed new light on the moral awakening and collective action that a diverse group of Americans sparked more than a century agoand show how we can build on their example, but also learn from their blind spots, today.

Xavier de Souza Briggs, Distinguished Visiting Professor, New York University, and former Vice President, the Ford Foundation

ALSO BY ROBERT D. PUTNAM

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us

(with David E. Campbell and Shaylyn Romney Garrett)

Better Together: Restoring the American Community

(with Lewis M. Feldstein)

Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society (editor)

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Disaffected Democracies: Whats Troubling the Trilateral Countries?

(edited with Susan J. Pharr)

Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy

(with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti)

Double-Edged Democracy: International Bargaining and Domestic Politics

(edited with Peter B. Evans and Harold K. Jacobson)

Hanging Together: Conflict and Cooperation in the Seven-Power Summits

(with Nicholas Bayne)

Bureaucrats and Politicians in Western Democracies

(with Joel D. Aberbach and Bert A. Rockman)

The Comparative Study of Political Elites

The Beliefs of Politicians: Ideology, Conflict, and Democracy in Britain and Italy

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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition October 2020

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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui

Jacket design by Jason Heuer

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Putnam, Robert D., author. | Garrett, Shaylyn Romney, author.Title: The upswing : how America came together a century ago and how we can do it again / Robert D. Putnam ; with Shaylyn Romney Garrett.Description: First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2020001227 | ISBN 9781982129149 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982129156 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781982129163 (ebook)Subjects: LCSH: IndividualismUnited StatesHistory20th century. | IndividualismUnited StatesHistory21st century. | Political cultureUnited StatesHistory20th century. | Political cultureUnited StatesHistory21st century. | United StatesSocial conditions20th century. | United StatesSocial conditions21st century.Classification: LCC HM1276 .P88 2020 | DDC 302.5/40973dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001227

ISBN 978-1-9821-2914-9

ISBN 978-1-9821-2916-3 (ebook)

To Rosemary, love of my life

Robert D. Putnam

To Sophia Eve and Aeon Elijah, my brightest hopes for the future

Shaylyn Romney Garrett

whats past is prologue, what to come, in yours and my discharge.

William Shakespeare, The Tempest

In the early 1830s a French aristocrat named Alexis de Tocqueville traveled to America at the behest of his government, with a mission to better understand the American prison system. At the time the United States was a fledgling democracy, barely half a century old, and many nations looked to it as a bold experiment. It was an open question as to whether securing liberty and equality by means of a constitution and a participatory government would, or could, succeed.