Levin, Yuval. A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream; New York: Basic Books, 2020.
Yuval Levin offers a compelling and insightful analysis of American’s disenchantment with our major social institutions. He argues for the formative role of institutions in shaping our conduct as both independent and socially responsible individuals. Contrary to the notion that institutional structures limit individual freedom, Levin points to the way institutions provide a home for enacting important roles. He challenges the current fashion of demeaning institutions and calls for processes to rebuild the integrity of institutions so they are worthy of trust. One chapter focuses on institutions of higher education and provides an important framework for understanding the tensions created by virture of the academy’s multifaceted purposes. This book is useful reading for anyone striving to understand the devisiveness so prevalent in today’s society.