Meanwhile, the authors' antidote to the American sickness--a quest for democratic community that draws on our diverse civic and religious traditions--has contributed to a vigorous scholarly and popular debate. Attention has been focused on forms of social organization, be it civil society, democratic communitarianism, or associative democracy, that can humanize the market and the administrative state. In their new Introduction the authors relate the argument of their book both to the current realities of American society and to the growing debate about the country's future. With this new edition one of the most influential books of recent times takes on a new immediacy.

Robert N. Bellah is Elliott Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, and the author of several books, including The New Religious Consciousness (with Charles Y. Glock) (1975). Richard Madsen is Professor of Sociology, University of California, San Diego; his most recent book is China and the American Dream (California, 1995). William M. Sullivan is Professor of Philosophy, LaSalle University, Philadelphia; his most recent book is Work and Integrity: The Crisis and Promise of Professionalism in America (1994). Ann Swidler is Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Organization Without Authority: Dilemmas of Social Control in Free Schools (1980). Steven M. Tipton is Professor, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, and author of Getting Saved from the Sixties: Moral Meaning in Conversion and Cultural Change (California, 1982). The authors also collaborated on the writing of The Good Society (1991).

In 2000, Robert Bellah was one of twelve recipients of the National Humanities Medal