In The American City, Daniel J. Monti, Jr., examines the way in which people live within cities, how they choose to interact with each other, what organizations or societies they form, and what forms of communities emerge out of this interaction to create a civic culture that then defines both the city and the people who make the city their home. A series of loosely related essays on various aspects of human interaction, this book is less thesis-driven than it is a wide reaching rumination by Monti on the various aspects of city life. Monti brings together many different aspects of studies on citizenship and public action and asks very large questions about what it means to have a community, how these communities emerge, and what, if anything, is the future of civic life within the American city.