The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again

by Robert D. Putnam

Between 1973 and 1994 (the last time this question was posed by the Roper researchers) the number of men and women who took any leadership role in any local organization—from “old-fashioned” fraternal organizations to New Age encounter groups—was cut in half. Across the two decades, whites were more likely than blacks to hold a leadership role, but the trend was similar in both races. The leadership rate among whites fell from 17 percent to 9 percent between 1973 and 1994, while the rate among blacks fell from 12 percent to 7 percent. By this measure, across racial lines, virtually half of America’s civic infrastructure was obliterated in barely two decades.36