Alienated America: Why Some Communities Thrive While Others Collapse
Recommended by: Donna Murphy
Posted in: Rural/Urban Divide Working Class Experiences
Purchase →Timothy P. Carney traveled across the U.S. and found that the difference between communities that were thriving and those that were not was the lack of social capital in the latter. Churches and synagogues, Rotary clubs and VFW posts, PTAs and youth sports organizations—when they stop flourishing, the community does, too.
This book is well researched and highly thought provoking. Timothy P. Carney explores various theories regarding the cause of phenomena such as the decline of marriage among those in the working class, the increase in non-working men between the ages of 25-54 from 3.4 percent in 1964 to 11.8 percent in 2015, and the rise of deaths of despair in certain areas. He finds the culprit to be the erosion of community. Virtue is a habit that must be learned by young people, and religious and civic organizations—in addition to workplaces—are where they can learn it.
Aside from the obvious obstacles when major employers leave a town, Carney also finds overcentralization and hyperindividualism to contribute to the decline in social capital. His solution is “twenty thousand towns each taking steps to revitalize their community and one million little platoons forming and deploying on their little patches.”
While Carney’s particular emphasis on communities of faith gave me pause, his answer is, “What else ya got?” for places that are not wealthy. “Churches act like both a finishing school and a social network for a lot lower tuition than Georgetown Prep.” Local Braver Angels Alliances can certainly also be part of the one million little platoons that connect people and help revitalize communities.
I agree with the key points of Donna Murphy’s review and recommend the book. Part of the evidence Carney describes that resonated with me is that while many counties supported Trump in the general election regardless of the existence of a social network, the difference was evident in the primaries. Counties with strong social networks (notably but not exclusively religious in nature such as Mormon communities) did not support Trump in the primaries. And that many liberal coastal communities have greater means to devote time to non-sectarian community group activities (think: PTA) so that while wealth is not a solution in itself, it helps reduce certain barriers to community involvement.