Read the full essay here.
“Bowling Alone” (1995) described widespread civic disengagement in America since the 1960s. On the article’s fifteenth anniversary, this piece revisits these issues to make two new observations. First, a new “9/11 Generation”—adolescents on September 11—is far more politically engaged than their elders were at a similar age. This incipient civic revival was furthered, but not created, by the Obama campaign. But, second, a growing class gap among our youth—in civic and religious engagement, family support, social trust, and self-esteem—threatens future social cohesion and social mobility and may lead America towards a caste society.