"We the people are pretty disgusted with politics. . . . But what we're disgusted with is formally elected, representative government. . . . There is another form of American politics, however, one vital to the American ideal that government is of, by, and for the people. It resides in our town-meeting-like habit of banding together to do things that need doing in our communities, whether it's keeping a toxic-waste dump from being put next door to a school or cleaning up the neighborhood. It depends not upon election, but upon self-selection and not upon careerism, but upon good citizenship and fellow feeling. Perhaps . . . by realizing how much political power we can and do wield in our own backyards, we may lose some of our despondency and a lot of our dependency upon our elective government."--ALA Booklist
"The optimism of David Mathews is very much needed in these cynical times. His faith that the public can play a much more substantial political role is contagious. . . . An effective antidote to the prevailing cynical view of an apathetic public that has little interest in any but the most parochial concerns."--William Stewart, The Alabama Review
"An extraordinarily timely, topical, and useful book. Written in an accessible, popular style, it addresses the central public question of our time: How to develop a politics that works?"--Harry C. Boyte, coauthor of Citizen Action and the New American Populism