Patterns of Social Capital: Stability and Change in Historical Perspective(Studies in Interdisciplinary History)

Societies work best where citizens trust their fellow citizens, work cooperatively for common goals, and thus share a civic culture. The accumulation of reciprocal trust, as demonstrated by voluntary efforts for the creation of common goods, builds social capital and contributes to effective government. This volume advances the study of social capital across chronological and geographical space. It examines voluntary associations, comparatively and cross-culturally, as important indicators of citizen readiness for civic engagement. An important conclusion, along the way, is that social capital may not be continuous, or endure. Several of the authors wonder if the accumulation and diminution of social capital will prove cyclical. Or has there been a societal deterioration as we enter a more anonymous age? This book is ultimately about the pattern of social and civic interactions in past times, and how these patterns may no longer exist.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction: social capital and political culture in Africa, America, Australasia, and Europe Robert I. Rotberg; 2. Civic traditions in premodern Italy Gene Brucker; 3. The sources of civil society in Italy Edward Muir; 4. Finding social capital: the French Revolution in Italy Raymond Grew; 5. Social capital in the early Industrial Revolution Leonard N. Rosenband; 6. The diversity of social capital in English communities, 1300–1640 (with a glance at modern Nigeria) Marjorie K. McIntosh; 7. Social and cultural capital in Colonial British America: a case study Jack P. Greene; 8. The growth of voluntary associations in America, 1840–1940 Gerald R. Gamm and Robert D. Putnam; 9. Civil society as Democratic practice: North American cities during the nineteenth century Mary P. Ryan; 10. Securing political returns to social capital: women's associations in the United States, 1880s–1920s Elisabeth S. Clemens; 11. Second-generation civic America: education, citizenship, and the children of immigrants Reed Ueda; 12. Human capital and social capital: the rise of secondary schooling in America, 1910–1940 Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz; 13. From local to national cultures: social capital and civic organization in the Great Plains Myron P. Gutmann and Sara M. Pullum; 14. Civility, social capital, and civil society: three powerful concepts for explaining Asia Lucian W. Pye.

Review :
'… these contributions are well researched, high-quality studies of the patterns of social capital in differently times and places …'. Progress in Human Geography