our kids
A New York Times bestseller and “a passionate, urgent†(The New Yorker) examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author of Bowling Alone: why fewer AmCentral to the very idea of America is the principle that we are a nation of opportunity. But over the last quarter century we have seen a disturbing “opportunity gap†emerge. There are just a few essential reads if you want to understand the American social and political landscape today. If I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities in the world.The most rigorous economic and social history now available suggests that socioeconomic barriers in America (and in Port Clinton) in the 1950s were at their lowest ebb in more than a century: economic and educational expansion were high; income equality was relatively high; class segregation in neighborhoods and schools was low; class barriers to intermarriage and social inThough small and not very diverse racially, Port Clinton in the 1950s was in all other respects a remarkably representative microcosm of America, demographically, economically, educationally, socially, and even politically. (Ottawa County, of which Port Clinton is county seat, is the bellwether county in the bellwether state of the United States—that is, the county whose No single town or city could possibly represent all of America, and Port Clinton in the 1950s was hardly paradise. As in the rest of America at the time, minorities in Port Clinton suffered serious discrimination and women were frequently marginalized, as we shall explore later in this chapter. Few of us, including me, would want to return there without major reforms. But sJune 1, 1959, had dawned hot and sunny, but the evening was cooler as 150 new graduates thronged down the steps of Port Clinton High School in the center of town, clutching our new diplomas, flushed with Commencement excitement, not quite ready to relinquish our childhood in this pleasant, friendly town of 6,500 (mostly white) people on the shores of Lake Erie, but confidenClass differences were not absent in Port Clinton in the 1950s, but as the lives of Frank and Don illustrate, those differences were muted. Our Kids | Book by Robert D. Putnam | Official Publisher Page | Simon & SchusterOur KidsI went back to Ohio, but my city was gone.If I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities in the world.In the particular is contained the universal.