Town Hall

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

October 15, 2020

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Eminent political scientist Robert Putnam discusses his book, The Upswing, with co-author Shaylyn Romney Garrett, exploring the economic, social, and political trends over the past century that brought us from an “I” society to a “We” society and then back again. Putnam and Romney will also discuss how we can learn from that experience to become a stronger, more unified nation. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

 

 

Participants

  • Shaylyn Romney Garrett is co-author with Robert Putnam of The Upswing: How America Came Together A Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. She is also the author of American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. Garrett is the founding contributor to David Brooks’s Aspen Institute initiative, Weave: The Social Fabric Project and co-founder of Think Unlimited. Her nonprofit work has been featured by the New York Times, FastCompany, LinkedIn, Harvard Business Review, and Arab Investor. She was twice awarded a membership to the Clinton Global Initiative and has been a speaker at TEDx.

  • Robert Putnam is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the British Academy, and past president of the American Political Science Association. Putnam has received the Skytte Prize, the world’s highest accolade for a political scientist, and in 2013 President Barack Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal. Putnam has written 15 books, translated into 20 languages, including the best-selling Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community and The Upswing with Shaylyn Romney Garrett. He has received 16 honorary degrees from 8 countries. 

  • Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.

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