In Search of Politics

Synopsis

In this book, the noted sociologist confronts the decline of the public realm and the profound contradictions of freedom in present-day society. How can most of us consider ourselves free and yet believe equally firmly that there is little we can change―singly, severally, or all together―in the ways the affairs of the world are being run? Why has the growth of individual freedom coincided with the growth of collective impotence, insofar as there is no easy and obvious way to translate private worries into public issues and, conversely, to pinpoint public issues in private troubles?