The Great Disruption

In the past thirty years, the United States has undergone a profound transformation in its social structure: Crime has increased, trust has declined, families have broken down, and individualism has triumphed over community. Has the Great Disruption of recent decades rent the fabric of American society irreparably? In this brilliant and sweeping work of social, economic, and moral analysis, Francis Fukuyama shows that even as the old order has broken apart, a new social order is already taking its place. The Great Disruption forges a new model for understanding the Great Reconstruction that is under way.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Part ONE: The Great Disruption

1. Playing by the Rules

2. Crime, Family, Trust: What Happened

3. Causes: The Conventional Wisdom

4. Causes: Demographic, Economic, and Cultural

5. The Special Role of Women

6. Consequences of the Great Disruption

7. Was the Great Disruption Inevitable?

Part TWO: On the Genealogy of Morals

8. Where Do Norms Come From?

9. Human Nature and Social Order

10. The Origins of Cooperation

11. Self-Organization

12. Technology, Networks, and Social Capital

13. The Limits of Spontaneity and the Inevitability of Hierarchy

14. Beyond Cave 76

Part THREE: the great reconstruction

15. Does Capitalism Deplete Social Capital?

16. Reconstructions Past, Present, and Future

Appendix: Additional Data and Sources

Notes

Bibliography

Index