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Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (2015), by Robert Putnam, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
Harvard social scientist, Robert Putman, has written a sobering assessment about upward mobility, the opportunity gap, and the endangered "American Dream." Well-known for his classic take on the dissolution of American communities in Bowling Alone, Mr. Putnam paints a vivid description of the layers that have been contributing to the chasm of differences in the lives of poor and affluent children. Through detailed storytelling and intensive research between two generations of the rich and poor, Our Kids examines families, parenting, education, and communities in order to uncover the contributions to a quickly dividing social structure and the enduring effects on the lives of children. By uncovering the dynamic forces of economics, declining wages, job instability, challenging public policy, and drastic cultural change, Mr. Putnam calls on us to consider the statistics and institute new ideas to bridge the gaps that divide our kids.
Our Kids begins with a visit to Port Clinton, Ohio, the hometown of Mr. Putman. He calls Port Clinton of the 1950s a "remarkably representative microcosm of America." Reflecting on social and economic norms of Port Clinton, Mr. Putnam discusses the lives of the children of working-class and wealthy families and compares those lives to modern American children.
Most children of Port Clinton in the 1950s lived in two-parent homes, in tight-knit neighborhoods where men were the proverbial breadwinners and women raised children. Children from working-class and affluent families generally lived in the same neighborhoods although they generally did not socialize "across racial lines." Children from both socioeconomic classes did well in school and it was a social norm for all people to care for and support the children and their college aspirations. When most children graduated from high school, they attended college. Most women married before graduating college although both men and women were equally likely to attend. Much has changed in America since the 1950s and the ways in which our children have been impacted is monumental.
Compared to the 1950s, inequality is staggering today. Socioeconomic gaps and inequality in opportunity are compounded by the shifts in families, communities, parenting, and education. In the 1970s, due to the economic collapse and recession, the...