“Instead of volunteering and getting-to-know each other, community-building citizens who once typified this nation…Americans have become privatized, atomized, focused within their property lines.”
Cited by John Hallwas, On Community: A Crucial Issue, a Small Town, and a Writer’s Experience
ON THIS EPISODE
Our topic today is entitled “A Nation of Strangers.” This episode serves as a sort of introduction to the 1st section in Dr. Hallwas’s book which is titled “CULTURE & COMMUNITY in a PROBLEMATIC ERA. Special thanks once again to Cuba High School student, Andrew Christian for his help with this episode.
OBJECTIVES
- How have digital communities impacted our place-based sense of community?
- What is a community in the 1st place (as cited in the 1993 book “Geography of Nowhere“)
- How well do Americans know their neighbors?
RESOURCES
- John Hallwas Webpage (Further info on Dr. Hallwas, his books, and more)
- On Community: A Crucial Issue, a Small Town, and a Writer’s Experience (Amazon Book Page)
- Western Illinois Archives (Where you can access hundreds of Dr. Hallwas’s articles, lectures, and books).
“By remembering the past of our communities and identifying with its people, we contribute to its emerging future — we can avoid alienation, deepen our true identity, & rescue ourselves from the meaninglessness that plagues so many contemporary Americans.”
John Hallwas, On Community: A Crucial Issue, a Small Town, and a Writer’s Experience
The Forgottonia Project 