For the Common Good?: American Civic Life and the Golden Age of Fraternity

ISBN-13: 9780195148589 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 304 str.

Jason Kaufman

Opis

The Golden Age of Fraternity was a unique time in American history. Joining clubs, fraternities, militias, and mutual benefit societies between the Civil and First World Wars was so prevalent that many contemporaries see it as a model for a revitalization of American civil society today. Relying on extensive analysis of city directories, club histories, and membership lists, For the Common Good? aims to dispel many of the myths about the curative powers of clubbing while bringing to light the hidden lessons therein.

Recenzje

This is a good book. It is dense with information, well written, logically argued, and methodologically rigorous and adds structure to arguments where it was desperately needed. Overall, Kaufman takes on some cherished myths of American association. Viewed as an essential antidote to the generally positive views of associationalism in the late nineteenth century, For the Common Good? should be readby anyone interested in association, trust, social capital, civil society, or any other form of prosocial behavior.