Rebuilding America is not merely a matter of shoring-up its economy: personal, ethical, and social renewal are equally essential. Here Amitai Etzioni elaborates the twin essentials of this reconstruction: mutuality (a positive affective bond among people) and civility (a commitment to the commonweal). Without mutuality people are diminished, we lose the capacity to function well. Without civility the community deteriorates, society becomes a free-for-all of unethical conduct among competing interest groups - to the neglect of our shared concerns. In his examination of contemporary American social philosophies Etzioni shows how "me-ism" (being one's own best friend) and other pop psychologies of self-actualization share with laissez-faire conservatism and libertarianism an antisocial philosophy, celebrating self-centered individuals who disdain their bonds to one another as well as to the rest of society. Such groups as the Moral Majority correctly recognize the need for ethical, personal, and social reconstruction, says Etzioni, but their absolutist cure violates individuals in the process of trying to save the community. Here is an approach which balances individual freedom and community reconstruction in the renewal of our main social and economic institutions. Only such a reindustrialization can come to grips with the excessive consumption and underinvestment that has made the United States an underdeveloping nation. - Dust jacket.