Building America: The Democratic Promise of Public Work

by Harry C. Boyte, Nancy N. Kari

Throughout history, work has always been the taproot of American democracy, enabling diverse people to forge connections with each other and to address the nation's problems. This book presents an analysis of diverse civic practices. It argues that work is the center of effective citizenship.

272 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 1996

About the author

Harry Boyte is founder and co-director of the Institute's Center for Democracy and Citizenship, and founder of Public Achievement, a theory-based practice of citizen organizing to do public work for the common good which is being used in schools, universities and communities across the United States and in more than a dozen countries.

He has worked with a variety of foundations, nonprofit, educational, neighborhood and citizen organizations concerned with community development, citizenship education, and civic renewal. In the 1960s, Boyte worked for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a field secretary with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the southern civil rights movement.