Engaging Strangers Civil Rites, Civic Capitalism, and Public Order in Boston

Engaging Strangers: Civil Rites, Civic Capitalism, and Public Order in Boston by Daniel J. Monti, Jr. explores how the people of Boston have learned to practice a more congenial and respectful set of civic virtues. Monti provides a model for civic conduct for the rest of America to study and follow. Americans are angry and scared. The economy is limping along. Inequality has reached unprecedented levels. We are thought to be disengaged and distrustful of each other when we aren't being openly antagonistic. Commentators believe that Americans are only looking out for themselves. Unwilling or unable to work on behalf of a broader public good, the effect is that our politics are thought to be as divided as our culture.The people of Boston-a city not known for being particularly welcoming to outsiders and newcomers or a place where people are inclined to finding common ground- aren't acting anything like this, however. They have found a much different way to conduct their public lives. The civic culture of Boston today is calmer; people are better connected and more respectful of each other, and their city is better organized and more orderly than at any time in its long and storied history. Bostonians have learned to get along with the strangers among them in ways their ancestors never knew and never expected the rest of us would be willing to entertain much less master. They have their civic act together.The lesson for the rest of us is clear. Americans may be angry. But we're not angry with each other. Whatever differences we have are not irreconcilable. Americans may have problems, but figuring out how to work with each other isn't one of them. There really is a great deal more that unites us than divides us.