Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett

Putnam and Romney Garrett are the authors of The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. Putnam is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and a former Dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Romney Garrett is a writer and award-winning social entrepreneur. She is a founding contributor to "Weave: The Social Fabric Project," an Aspen Institute initiative.

America Must Rebuild Our Communities Before the Next Pandemic

As the Omicron variant spreads across the globe, we are reminded again that a pandemic is a disease of populations, not of individuals, and population-level problems require collective solutions. This is why societies with high...

By Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett and Céline R. Gounder January 11, 2022

America's Past Has Shown the Power of 'We.' Here's How We Can Revive It

Unprecedented political polarization; deep and accelerating inequality; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private self-centeredness–Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: this is the worst of times. But we’ve been...

By Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett December 3, 2020