Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy Paperback - 2001

First line

THIS chapter argues that the key of reinvigorating democracy in the United States can be found in efforts to engage people in politics through their participation in the stable institutions of of community life.

From the rear cover

"Mark Warren's comprehensive case study of the Industrial Areas Foundation is a major contribution to the growing literature on coalition politics. Indeed, it is the best empirical study ever written on multiracial collaboration to address social inequality. Featuring careful and systematic analysis of rich data on local organizing, Dry Bones Rattling will be ancinfluential book and is must reading for those committed to revitalizing American democracy through interracial political cooperation."--William Julius Wilson, Harvard University

"Dry Bones Rattling is timely, important, and inspiring. Timely, because this study of the most successful faith-based movement for social justice in America appears just as faith-based social initiatives have reached the top of the national political agenda. Important, because it is a deeply grounded contribution to the rapidly growing field of social capital theory. Inspiring, because by showing how civic malaise has been reversed in some of the nation's most impoverished, ethnically divided settings, this book should raise the aspirations of democratic reformers. Must reading for social theorists and civic activists."--Robert Putnam, Harvard University, author of Making Democracy Work

"Mark Warren has written a comprehensive and insightful analysis of a profoundly important community-based movement. I have seen how the Industrial Areas Foundation organizations this book examines have revitalized communities across America, both physically and spiritually. In San Antonio, the city I know best, I watched Communities Organized for Public Service empower poor neighborhoods and give voice to their concerns. Capable new leaders emerged and the city entered a new era of citizen democracy. Dry Bones Rattling provides a compelling eyewitness account of the transformations these organizations bring, showing us a sacred force rooted in human dignity at work."--Henry Cisneros, Chairman and CEO of American CityVista

"Dry Bones Rattling is an important addition to the literature on community organizations, populist politics, and--more than anything--religion-based politics."--James Morone, Brown University

"Original scholarship built on strong ethnographic work, Warren's book is among the best of the outstanding scholarship on the dilemmas of American democracy that has emerged in recent years. As such it will be highly useful to specialists on grassroots movements and on the intersection of religion and politics in American life, as well as broadly useful to political scientists and political sociologists. This is excellent scholarly work on an important political phenomenon that until now has eluded adequate scholarly attention."--Richard L. Wood, University of New Mexico, author of Faith in Action

Media reviews

Citations

• Choice, 01/01/2002, Page 972
• Multicultural Review, 03/01/2002, Page 96