America's Promise

Reviews / Votes

If you want to know what civil society means, and why the concept is so important, by all means read this book. Wise, lucid and extremely informative, it is an indispensable guide to the civil society debate. -- David Popenoe, Rutgers University No one who cares about the future of America's civil institutions, no one who has a head and a heart for the plight of our most truly needy fellow citizens and young
people, can afford to miss Don Eberly's masterful new book, America's Promise. -- John DiIulio, Princeton University This is the most comprehensive book on the civic society to date. Nobody is clearer on this important issue than Eberly and few are his peers. -- Amitai Etzioni, professor, George Washington University; founder of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics America's Promise lays out better than any book I have seen the essence of the contemporary problem of American community, beginning with the family and ending with the welfare state, and proposes some sensible and fair initiatives to reduce our social isolation . -- Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man Eberly demonstrates decisively that what is at stake in the outcome of the civil society debate is not only our collective self-understanding but, indeed, our well-being as citizens. -- Jean Bethke Elshtain, The Laura Spelman Rockeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics, University of Chicago; author of Just War Against Terror America's Promise is jam-packed with generosity and wisdom-a valuable piece of work on what civil society is, why it matters and what we can do to renew our culture. -- David Blankenhorn, president, Institute for American Values For a decade now, Don Eberly has been one of the leading figures in the effort to renew American culture. He is a thinker as well as a doer; a Christian who understand the need to engage the secular world. He is always worth a reading, and never more so than in America's Promise. -- Glenn C. Loury, director, Institute on Race and Social Division, Boston University While some may take issue with Eberly's conclusions and recommendations, America's Promise offers a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the contemporary civil society movement. Moving surefootedly through empirical research, history, philosophy, and religion, this book will be a valuable resource for leaders who want to understand the renewed interest in civil society among Americans across the political spectrum. -- William A. Galston America's Promise offers a frightening, but on target diagnosis of the nation's moral meltdown. More importantly, Don Eberly outlines a way out that may be out best hope for the future. -- Peggie Wehmeyer, correspondent, ABC News The most frustrating aspect of much of what is written about something called 'civil society' is that once its quite obvious virtues are asserted, little more of specific consequence tends to get said. Don Eberly fixes this problem be endowing the national conversation with abundant philosophical, spiritual and ground-level grist. -- Mitch B. Pearlstein, president, Center of the American Experiment, Minneapolis American Promise represents perhaps the best single introduction to the subject. -- Peter Agustine Lawler * The Printed Page, May-June 99 *