A review by mamamia
Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse by Timothy P. Carney

4.0

Um, I have some reservations about rating this book as highly as I did because I really didn't appreciate the tone of his writing in the first half, but this complaint is the exception rather than the rule; his tone, while bothersome at times, did not dissuade me from his central argument. Carney does not attempt to hide his conservative political bent in this novel, but he backs up his argument with notably bipartisan research sources. His writing authoritatively conveys the importance of connected American citizen life by peppering individual stories, citations to historical political philosophers, and analysis of differing civic life across the states with hard research about the effects of concentrated religiously affiliated philanthropy, nuclear family life, and community social solutions. This book offered me the best argument I've ever encountered for pause when thinking about government social intervention. Like other reviewers, I dislike the moments where it becomes more obvious that Carney wants to push a certain solution of robust rebuilding of American Christianity. While I personally would welcome this in my own communities, there are other solutions to be considered, as one reviewer mentioned, including walkable cities and robust library programs. I'm not sure religiosity can be as necessarily strongly linked to community revitalization as he claims. I'll be chewing on this book's findings for a long while. I highly recommend to my similarly progressive peers.