Robert D. Putnam

Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy
Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America
Office Address
Taubman-370
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox 114
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Contact
Phone: 617-495-0539
Fax: 617-495-1589
Email: Robert_Putnam@hks.harvard.edu
Assistant
Kyle Gibson (617-495-1402)
Robert Putnam

Profile

Robert D. Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard, where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses. Professor Putnam is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the British Academy, and past president of the American Political Science Association. In 2006, Putnam received the Skytte Prize, one of the world's highest accolades for a political scientist. Raised in a small town in the Midwest and educated at Swarthmore, Oxford, and Yale, he has served as Dean of the Kennedy School of Government.

He has written fourteen books, translated into twenty languages, including the best-selling Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, and more recently Better Together: Restoring the American Community, a study of promising new forms of social connectedness. His previous book, Making Democracy Work, was praised by the Economist as "a great work of social science, worthy to rank alongside de Tocqueville, Pareto and Weber." Both Making Democracy Work and Bowling Alone are among the most cited publications in the social sciences worldwide in the last half century.

Putnam's most recent book, American Grace, co-authored with David Campbell of Notre Dame, focuses on the role of religion in American public life. Based on data from two of the most comprehensive national surveys on religion and civic engagement ever conducted, American Grace is the winner of the American Political Science Association's 2011 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs.

He consults widely with national leaders, including the last three American presidents, the last three British prime ministers, and the current French president. He founded the Saguaro Seminar, bringing together leading thinkers and practitioners to develop actionable ideas for civic renewal.

His earlier work included research on comparative political elites, Italian politics, and globalization. Before coming to Harvard in 1979, he taught at the University of Michigan and served on the staff of the National Security Council. He is currently working on three major empirical projects:(1) Inequality andopportunity: a growing class gap amongAmerican young people and the implications for social mobility; (2) Thechanging role of religion in the United Kingdom and the US; and (3) The socialconsequences of hard times in the United Kingdom and the US.

Courses

Fall

  • DPI-360 Social Capital and Public Affairs: Research Seminar

Research

For a complete list of faculty citations from 2001 - present, please visit the Harvard Kennedy School Research Report Online.

Selected Publication Citations:

  • Academic Journal/Scholarly Articles
    • Lewis, Valerie A., Carol Ann MacGregor, and Robert D. Putnam. "Religion, Networks, and Neighborliness: The Impact of Religious Social Networks on Civic Engagement." Social Science Research 42.2 (March 2013): 331-346.
    • Putnam, Robert D. "What’s So Darned Special about Church Friends?" Altruism, Morality, & Social Solidarity Forum 3.2 (May 2012): 1, 19-21.