“A good overview of the intellectual roots and current policy context for the growing movement to rebuild this country’s communities.”—Martin Eakes, C.E.O., Self Help Credit Union “An original, informative, and important contribution to the fields of urban studies and social policy.”—Richard Briffault, Columbia Law School “An outstanding book on a very important subject. Simon has pulled together the many complex ... Read morestrands and woven them into a very readable, comprehensive story.”—Joel F. Handler, author of Down from Bureaucracy: The Ambiguity of Privatization and Empowerment “Community-based organizations are flourishing despite the atrophy of key parts of America's traditional civil society and turmoil in the provision of public services. Simon gives a compelling, coherent account of their success as an institutionally innovative revival of the republican idea of liberty. Whether you agree or not with the thesis, Simon's deeply informed and carefully argued book is an indispensable point of reference in the intensifying debate about the political vitality of the local in the age of the global.”—Charles Sabel, Columbia Law School Show Less