MANY AMERICANS RECOGNIZE THAT SOMETHING IS MISSING IN THIS DAY AND AGE. From widespread income insecurity and community disintegration to the loss of civic respon¬sibility and our current environmental crisis, most would agree that somehow America has “gone off the tracks.” To fix our communities, we need to understand the context of our growth and development, as well as what created great communities and what destroyed them. Recognizing that confidence in our national leaders is at an all-time low, the proposals presented here are designed to make changes outside the gridlock of the federal government. This book presents solutions that can create change at the individual, community, regional, and state levels. Although strategic federal action has been successful in the past—think of the post World War Two Marshall Plan, the GI Bill, the creation of NASA and its research and development spinoffs, cutting poverty in half, and so on—people seem to want less government today. In such an environment, individuals, businesses, and nonprofits can—and must—pick up the slack. Bolstered by the ideas of the world’s foremost scholars, this book will give you the background, tools, and knowledge to make the informed decisions that can lead to more freedom, increased fairness, and a better quality of life for everyone.