Hosts Sam Hopkins (’61) and Karl Kaiser invite you to hear Robert D. Putnam, Peter and Isabel Mallon Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School
Speak About His New Book:The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again  

Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism – Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times.

In a sweeping overview of more than a century of history, drawing on his inimitable combination of statistical analysis and storytelling, Robert Putnam analyzes a remarkable confluence of trends that brought us from an “I” society to a “We” society and then back again. He draws inspiring lessons for our time from an earlier era, when a dedicated group of reformers righted the ship, putting us on a path to becoming a society once again based on community.

Karl Kaiser is senior associate of the Transatlantic Initiative at the Belfer Center's Future of Diplomacy Project, Co-Chair of the European Union Seminar and Kennedy Fellow at CES, and adjunct professor for public policy emeritus at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as professor emeritus at the University of Bonn. Author/editor of several hundred articles and fifty books in the fields of world affairs, German, French, British and US foreign policy, East-West relations, nuclear proliferation, strategic theory, international economics, and international environmental policy, Karl will relate Bob’s writings to his experience in international affairs. 


RSVP to Tom Blodgett by Friday, November 6th (tblodgett@ft.newyorklife.com)