The Soul of Civil Society: Voluntary Associations and the Public Value of Moral Habits

Americans care about the public value of moral habits. They like to see virtue rewarded and vice censured, appealing as this does to the nation’s deep sense that one’s success rests neither in money nor in power but in one’s civility. In The Soul of Civil Society Don Eberly and Ryan Streeter look beyond such abstractions as the volunary sector and superficial communitarian solutions to civic anomie to identify the pitoval role played by local voluntary associations in a civil society. Not only important for the service they provide, these little platoons , as Edmund Burke labelled them, are the public incubators of a new morality, their emphasis on civic engagement at the local level central to preserving America’s democratic culture on the national and international stage. More than simply championing the promise of a social renaissance, The Soul of Civil Society is useful reading for those seeking to do battle with a culturally entrenched individualism that threatens the core of America’s moral vitality.