Q:2 When did Americans stop living in communities? Was there a tipping point?

Q&A With the Public Professor – 1.2

Reinhardt: The forces that led to the decline of American communities were complex, and the process took a long time to unfold.  For example, communities in the East were under stress and showing signs of collapse before Americans had even started founding communities in much of the West.  And of course there were many American Indian communities all across the continent that came under attack, sometimes physically and always culturally and socially, but that also happened at different times.  So there isn’t a single crucial tipping point or a precise date we can point to. However, we can say this: At its founding, there were hundreds of communities in America.  Today, more than two hundred years later, there are few if any.  It was a long process, the result of many historical forces that unfolded over a period of centuries.