• Co-Winner 2001 Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Book Award for the Outstanding Book in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research

America has always been a nation of joiners. Loose Connections argues that we still have the habit, and it is a good one, of reaching out and connecting to others in order to participate in the civic life 0f our culture. Wuthnow is an indispensable observer of the American civic and religious scene.
   --Jean Bethke Elshtain, author of Democracy on Trial

This is a very important book, especially in the context of the current debate over 'social capital' in America. Wuthnow presents an optimistic picture of the state of American voluntary institutions. One might sum up his view by saying that Alexis de Tocqueville has still not been proven wrong.
   --Peter Berger, Boston University

Robert Wuthnow is Gerhard Andlinger Professor of Social Sciences, Professor of Sociology, and Director of the Center for the Study of American Religion, at Princeton University.