I suspect that the recent tragic beating deaths in Chicago might bring upon some of the societal pulse-taking that usually follow such grim news not unlike what happens after a particularly grusome high school shooting.

If that's the case, then my current reading material of choice proves very timely: Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

I'm not going to review it here as its Amazon reviews gives a fair and accurate assessment of the work, but I will state that I'm really impressed with the book. Yes, it's dense with statistics and graphs but I think Putman's committment to vigourous quantitative research was necessary in order to give his broad claims the heft that they deserve.