The Small Community: Foundation of Democratic Life

In this age of large cities, mass culture, and ever more massive events, people must struggle against an overwhelming crowd of their own creations to maintain human integrity. In this manual for human survival, Arthur E. Morgan offers a solution: peaceful existence in the small, primary community where, more easily than anywhere else, people can find a way to live well. Ultimately striving to show that the small community is the lifeblood of civilization, this volume examines the political organization, membership, economics, health, and ethics characteristics of small communities.Like Rousseau before him, Morgan observes that we have less control over our affairs than in the past. In increasing our control of the natural environment, human beings have built a social environment so out of scale that it becomes nearly impossible for people to maintain balance. The struggle now is less with the natural order than with the social order, and preserving human integrity against the plethora of our own creations is the core problem.The need to rediscover elementary forms of human existence has been accelerated by the efficiencies of centralized control and mass persuasion. In the face of this, small communities or intimate groups become the primary pattern in which human beings must live if the good life is to be a realistic goal. The timely nature of this volume has grown as the electronic displaces the mechanical as a moral rival to human community.

Table of Contents:
One: The Significance of the Community; I: The Significance of the Small Community; II: What is a Community?; III: Man is a Community Animal; IV: History of the Community; V: The Place of the Community in Human Culture; VI: The Relation of the Community to Larger Social Units; VII: The Community in America; VIII: The Creation of New Communities; IX: The Problem; X: An Approach to a Solution of the Problem of the Community; Two: Community Organization; XI: Community Design; XII: A Study of the Community; XIII: The Community Council; XIV: Community Leadership; XV: Community Followership; Three: Specific Community Interests; XVI: Government and Public Relations; XVII: Community Economics; XVIII: Co-Operatives as an Expression of Community; XIX: Community Health; XX: Community Social Services; XXI: Small Community Recreation; XXII: Social and Cultural Aspects of Community Life; XXIII: Community Ethics; XXIV: The Church in the Community; Four: Concluding Observations; XXV: The Pioneer in the Community; XXVI: Freedom in the Community