Palaces for the People How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life

I read the first half pretty quickly because I was excited about the premise of the book. At about a hundred pages, I felt resistant to pick it up. The structure was hard to follow, and the points don’t really connect to each other. The information isn’t revelatory, and is stuff that a lot of people would already know. Upon reading other people’s reviews, I became aware that this book talks about social infrastructure without discussing racial inequality and the politics that make it that way. It’s kind of a long essay about how to improve social infrastructure if only the rest of the world was already dystopian. Overall weak arguments.

I really enjoyed this! Though fair warning it’s about 80% about libraries. Personally I love learning about libraries so that wasn’t a turn off for me. This is the first book of the kind I have read so take that into consideration. I know some reviewers were dissatisfied with lack of depth to this book especially in the context of racial issues. Once again this is the first book of the kind of read so to me it was just a great introduction to a topic I can delve further into later.

I hadn't encountered the concept of social infrastructure prior to this book, so it was a good introduction to the role of public spaces and how the sense of community they foster contribute to the wellbeing of a city and its residents. Beyond the novelty of the subject matter (for me), I was skeptical of the arguments that heavily relied on anecdotes. I felt some of the conclusions Klinenberg attempted to draw from the anecdotes were stronger than what his evidence supported. I was also shocked (and somewhat turned off) by the periodically strong aversions he had to certain topics. For instance, a strong disdain for Silicon Valley stood out amidst chapters of attempting to assume a neutral point of view on topics and spell out the facts. I probably would not recommend this book to peers. I'm convinced there are better introductions to this subject matter out there.

Quick review: Very informational; provides good facts and statisitics and backs up arguments well; some of the later chapters were harder to get through, though I'm not sure why. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book but towards the end was ready to move on to something new. Loses stars for that reason.

Palaces for the People is an excellent look at all the invisible ways social infrastructure has a huge impact on our lives and the devastating ways we fall apart without it. I really appreciated the broad approach Klinenberg takes in addressing social infrastructure. Too often I read books with 3-10 specific solutions to problems that have too many factors to be fully addressed in just a few key ways. Klinenberg makes it clear that there are multiple reasons why the US is falling apart: lack of accessible community spaces, diminishing social ties with our neighbors, neglected and empty city lots, etc. And he also makes it clear that there is a plethora of ways we can address these issues, if we're willing to try. Ultimately, Palaces for the People is a must read for anybody interested in or working in social services, education, activism, government, or environmental sciences.