Harvard Professor to Address ‘Community in American, Before and After 9/11’ During UA Talk

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Robert D. Putnam, a Harvard professor and author of a book detailing how Americans have become increasingly disconnected from friends, family and neighbors, will give a presentation titled “Community in America, Before and After 9/11,” on Friday, Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in Morgan Auditorium on The University of Alabama campus.

In his book, “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” Putnam writes that evidence shows Americans participate in fewer organizations, know neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize within their families less often than they did 25 years ago.

Putnam believes changes in work and family structure, television, computers and other factors have contributed to this decline, but he says that America civically reinvented itself some 100 years ago and can do it again. He will discuss the impact the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has on this trend.

This presentation, UA’s annual Allen Going Lecture, is sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa and is free and open to the public, as is a post-lecture reception.

Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American politics, international relations, comparative politics and public policy. He is the founder of The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America, a program that has brought together practitioners and thinkers who have met periodically since 1997 to discuss ideas to fortify the nation’s civic connectedness.

He has authored or co-authored 10 books and more than 30 scholarly works.