The upswing : [how America came together a century ago and how we can do it again]
(Spoken CD)

Compact disc.

Subtitle and statement of responsibility from container.

Read by Arthur Morey.

Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism. Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But society has been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today. However as the twentieth century opened, America became, slowly, unevenly, but steadily, more egalitarian, more cooperative, more generous; a society more focused on its responsibilities to one another and less focused on it₂s narrower self-interest. Sometime during the 1960s, however, the nation turned another corner, and all of these trends reversed, leaving it in today₂s disarray. Here, eminent political scientist Robert Putnam shows how the country can learn from the experiences of the past to turn the corner towards a stronger, more unified nation.