A chorus of essays from a variety of voices, backgrounds, and experiences, exploring what it means to be human and true to yourself. What does it mean to be yourself? To be born here or somewhere else? To be from one family instead of another? What does it mean to be human? Collected by Lori Carlson-Hijuelos, A Path to the World showcases essays by a vast variety of luminaries--from Gary Soto to Nawal Nasrallah to Ying Ying Yu, from chefs to artists to teens to philosophers to politicians (keep your eyes peeled for a surprise appearance by George Washington)--all of which speak to the common thread of humanity, the desire to be your truest self, and to belong. Contributors include: Lori Marie Carlson-Hijuelos, Joseph Bruchac, Jacinto Jesús Cardona, William Sloane Coffin, Pat Conroy, Mario Cuomo, Timothy Egan, Alan Ehrenhalt, Shadi Feddin, Ralph Fletcher, Valerie Gribben, Alexandre Hollan, Molly Ivins, Geeta Kothari, Jeremy Lee, Yuyi Li, Emily Lisker, Kamaal Majeed, Madge McKeithen, Nawal Nasrallah, Scott Pitoniak, Anna Quindlen, Michael J. Sandel, Raquel Sentíes, David E. Skaggs, Gary Soto, Alexandra Stoddard, KellyNoel Waldorf, George Washington, and Ying Ying Yu.

Eye-opening and thoroughly engaging, this is an indispensible look at American urban/suburban society and its future.
In "The Great Inversion, "Alan Ehrenhalt, one of our leading urbanologists, reveals how the roles of America's cities and suburbs are changing places--young adults and affluent retirees moving in, while immigrants and the less affluent are moving out--and addresses the implications of these shifts for the future of our society.
Ehrenhalt shows us how the commercial canyons of lower Manhattan are becoming residential neighborhoods, and how mass transit has revitalized inner-city communities in Chicago and Brooklyn. He explains why car-dominated cities like Phoenix and Charlotte have sought to build twenty-first-century downtowns from scratch, while sprawling postwar suburbs are seeking to attract young people with their own form of urbanized experience.

Millions of Americans yearn for a lost sense of community, for the days when neighbours looked out for one another and families were stable and secure. The 1950s are regarded as the golden age of community, but 1960s rebellion and 1980s nostalgia have blurred our view of what life was really like back then.In The Lost City, Alan Ehrenhalt cuts through the fog, immersing us in the sights, sounds, and rhythms of life in America forty years ago. He takes us down the streets and into the homes, schools, and shops of three neighbourhoods in one quintessentially American city: Chicago. In St. Nicholas of Tolentine parish on the Southwest Side, we see how the local Catholic church served as the moral and social centre of community life. In Bronzeville, the heart of the black South Side, we meet the civic leaders who offered hope and role models to people hemmed in by poverty and segregation. And in Elmhurst, a commuter suburb bursting with new subdivisions, we witness the culture of middle-class conformity and the ways in which children and adults bent to the rules of the majority culture.Through evocative stories and incisive analysis, Ehrenhalt shows that the glue holding each neighbourhood together was an unstated social compact under which people accepted limits in their lives and deferred to authority figures to enforce those limits,a compact destroyed by the baby boomers' rejection of authority in the 1960s. Since that time, an entire generation has come to believe that personal choice is the most important of life's values. But Ehrenhalt argues that if we truly wish to balance the demands of modern life with a feeling of community, we have a great deal to learn from the "limited" life of the 1950s. The Lost City reveals the price we must pay to restore community in our lives today and the values that will make such a restoration possible.

Distinguished author and editor Alan Ehrenhalt has chosen 40 articles that represent the best of what Governing has to offer: objective reporting about the issues that matter most, engaging writing by first-class journalists, and the ability to tell a good story while imparting important lessons about governance. With a focus on current controversies, hot policy debates, and recent political machinations, each reading comes from an issue published in the last two years. An ideal collection of applied case studies for public administration and management courses, this handy reader is especially useful for those instructors looking for more state and local coverage to supplement core texts. This second edition continues to focus on key management functions such as personnel, performance, and leadership, as well as on the impact of changes in federalism, technology, and regulation. This edition also includes more policy coverage on crime, health, and education as well as other pressing concerns like homeland security and ethics in government.

As an academic discipline, a public philosophy, and a social movement, Communitarianism has had a profound influence on contemporary American society. By promoting the idea that a good society is based on a carefully crafted balance between individual rights and social responsibilities, Communitarians have inspired new ideas and crafted new policies to strengthen our families, communities and nation. The Communitarian Reader: Beyond the Essentials brings together essays by prominent social thinkers, reflecting on a wide-range of issues from new approaches to fighting crime in inner city, to the relationship between norms and laws, and to the role of civil liberties after September 11th. Following the success of The Essential Communitarian Reader, this work takes readers to the next level of Communitarianism, and serves as a vital guide for all interested in further exploring this important social movement.