PositiveThe Wall Street JournalMr. Henderson recounts his own fractious upbringing within California’s foster-care system. He describes its dual logic ... [It shows] those who feel trapped by their past that they, too, can overcome.
Timothy P. Carney
PositiveCommentary MagazineCarney doesn’t simply restate well-worn points. Rather, he uses his evocative personal narrative and independent reporting to bring life to the statistical descriptions of poor communities’ social and economic decline ... His assault on technology, however, falls short. Carney’s primary lament is that the decline of institutions leaves us with fewer opportunities to interact and come into close proximity with one another. He leads readers through an extensive discussion on how advances in technology have promoted atomization by making social relationships less important ... All this is certainly true: Technology makes it easier to avoid engaging with other people. Yet, interestingly, the healthy communities that Carney highlights are probably making good use of Uber, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. Indeed, technology is a problem only if you assume that engagement and proximity are sufficient conditions for forming and enhancing social relationships ... [Carney] does offer some \'small solutions\' that are within the government’s purview ... Carney also admonishes readers to begin with the understanding that they are building a \'City of God\' in whatever geographical location they find themselves. And he is absolutely correct: The remedy does largely begin with us and how we approach and engage one another in our everyday lives.
