The Upswing

The Upswing, How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, by Robert D. Putnam with Shaylyn Romney Garrett, Simon & Schuster 2020

When we first hit the windshield as the corona virus slammed on the brakes, the shock took some time to register.  We had been just rolling along enjoying the winter landscape, feeling the sun set later,  registering stock market highs and splits and buyouts - goodness, the financial landscape looked glorious.  We could get haircuts and massages and manicures and dental work without even waiting!  How fabulous were all those times!  But then, your neck snapped back and you were surrounded by that awful silence.  What is happening?  Why did the Chinese turn loose that bat?  And do I have to learn to cut my own hair?

Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett  have written a book that takes us away from the shock of the moment and shows us how this time actually has parallels to another period in American history, the Gilded Age, an era filled with gold-encrusted riches and deep, destructive poverty (see How The Other Half  Lives, by Jacob A. Riis).  "The United States in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s was startlingly similar to today.  Inequality, political polarization, social dislocation, and cultural narcissism prevailed - all accompanied, as they are now, by unprecedented technological advances, prosperity, and material well-being."

But sometime at the end of the 19th century, the economics shifted, along with ideas about poverty and education, as well as individualism vs. community well-being. Gradually we moved through  The authors illustrate this shift with the "I-We-I" curve. They cover this change with four critical chapters, one each dedicated to four key metrics - Economics, Politics, Society and Culture.  From here they can identify and explore the same shifts one hundred years later.  Its interesting that they identify the Sixties as a pivot point, a time when the individual and individual expression gained ground on the values of community

The Upswing's chapters are filled with illustrative charts of the economics and human changes the authors track, although some of the charts bearing multiple dotted lines are a bit difficult to read.  The data supporting their "I-We-I" curve is drawn primarily from government and academic sources, and readers will find these graphs especially meaningful, and in some cases, shocking:

Figure 2.1    Long-term Real Growth in US GDP Per Capita, 1871-2016

Figure 2.6:   High School Graduation Rate, 1870-2015

Figure 2.7:   College Graduation Rate, 1910-2013

Figure 2.9:   Distribution of Wealth in the United States, 1913-2014 (The 1%)

Figure 2.12: Union Membership, 1890-2015

Figure 3.9:   Political Alienation, 1964-2018

Figure 4.6:   Emptying Pews and Multiplying "Nones," 1972-2018

Figure 4.8:   Median Age At First Marriage, 1890-201 (showing a shift of 10 years for women)

There are also charts measuring the more value-driven shifts - women working or at-home, church attendance, etc., and the data sources of course vary.

Finally, the authors leave us with the question of how we might engineer yet another pivot, one that guarantees gender and race specific equality along with solid economics.  Its a huge challenge, one that is still not accepted or understand among change-makers.  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, pemoody@aol.com, patriciaemoody@gmail.com