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Exhibition Join In: Voluntary Assocations in America

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“Joining Together in Tocqueville’s America”

Kevin Butterfield discusses his book, "The Making of Tocqueville's America: Law and Association in the Early United States." This event supports the new Library of Congress "Join In: Voluntary Associations in America" exhibition.

View the event recording

Publications

The official illustrated companion to the exhibition is available for sale in the Library of Congress store External.

Read More About It

  • Bilder, Mary Sarah. “English Settlement and Local Governance.” In The Cambridge History of Law in America, ed. Michael Grossberg and Christopher Tomlins, vol. 1: Early America (1580-1815), 63-103. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  • Butterfield, Kevin. The Making of Tocqueville’s America: Law and Association in the Early United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.
  • Gamm, Gerald, and Robert D. Putnam. “The Growth of Voluntary Associations in America, 1840-1940.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29, no. 4 (Spring 1999): 511-57.
  • Neem, Johann N. Creating a Nation of Joiners: Democracy and Civil Society in Early National Massachusetts. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008.
  • Osgood, Herbert L. American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century. New York: Mcmillian Company, 1904-1907.
  • Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
  • Putnam, Robert D. and Shaylyn Romney Garrett. The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020.
  • Schlesinger, Arthur M. “Biography of a Nation of Joiners,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 50, No. 1 (October 1944). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1944.
  • Skocpol, Theda. Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
  • Roney, Jessica Chopin. Governed by a Spirit of Opposition: The Origins of American Political Practice in Colonial Philadelphia. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.
  • Scott, Ann Firor. Natural Allies: Women’s Associations in American History. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1991.
  • Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Translated by Harvey C. Manfield and Delba Winthrop. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.

For Younger Readers

  • Corey, Shana. Here Come the Girl Scouts!:The Amazing All-True Story of Juliette ‘Daisy’ Gordon Low and Her Great Adventure. New York: Scholastic Press, 2012.
  • Kallen, Stuart A. Teen Guide to Volunteering. San Diego: Reference Point Press, 2020.
  • Teckentrup, Britta. We Are Together. Wilton, Connecticut: Tiger Tales, 2022.

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