This annual event recognizes the career of an individual who has made significant contributions to the study and understanding of public opinion. The 2020 Award celebrates the achievements of Robert Putnam, one of the most distinguished political scientists in the country whose work has been an indispensable guide to understanding the underpinnings of democracy and community in America and elsewhere.

Robert Putnam is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University.  Raised in a small town in Ohio, he was educated at Swarthmore, Oxford, and Yale. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the British Academy, and past president of the American Political Science Association. In 2013 President Barack Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal, the nation’s highest honor for contributions to the humanities, for “deepening our understanding of community in America.” Putnam has written fifteen books, translated into twenty languages, including Making Democracy Work: Civic Transitions in Italy and Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, both among the most cited social science works in the last half-century. 

“Robert Putnam masterfully recasts the history of our country from the Gilded Age to the present. The Upswing is a singularly illuminating book and a clarion call to action.” — David Kennedy, Professor of History Emeritus, Stanford University.

To purchase the book go to: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Upswing/Robert-D-Putnam/9781982129149