Does America have a sense of community and a vital civic culture? Are disparate groups capable of uniting as a single people who can call themselves Americans? Do Americans help each other for the common good? The author addresses these questions in this wide-ranging volume spanning 300 years of American urban life. He reconciles liberal and conservative viewpoints and responds, unequivocally, that yes, Americans are indeed a community of believers and that a viable and vital civic culture exists in the United States despite notions of difference and apathy. Civic life in the US has been...

Undergraduate students of urban sociology and urban studies.

Partisans on both the left and right wings of America's theory class and political spectrum believe we're in trouble, big trouble. The economy is limping along. Inequality has reached unprecedented levels. And we seem to be on the verge of being overwhelmed by immigrants who don't look and act anything like our grandparents did much less the men and women who founded our country. Angry, scared, disengaged and distrustful when we aren't openly antagonistic toward each other, Americans can't figure out who we are as a people and openly fret about our best days being behind us. To make matters...