Thanksgiving and the Revitalization of American Community

By Stephen Jordan

As we gather around tables this Thanksgiving, we're participating in a time-honored celebration of community in the United States today. Being together, appreciating the many blessings that we have been given - and not taking them for granted – are part of what bind us together, not just as families or friends or neighbors, but as Americans.  

However, by some indicators, the fabric of our communities is coming apart. Do you know that only 26% of Americans say they know all or most of their neighbors? For the first time in history, rural America lost population over the decade of 2010-2020. While there are some “green shoots” emerging since 2023, sociologists have long expressed concern about Americans  growing more lonely and isolated. Since connectedness and sense of community are such huge factors for individual quality of life, community resilience and social cohesiveness strategies matter more than ever. What can we learn from the past about what has worked, and how do we strengthen the social fabric that binds us together in this unfolding era of unprecedented change?

The Pilgrims' Community Compact

Our holiday's roots were deliberate. Before landing at Plymouth Rock, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact—a blueprint for self-governance and mutual obligation. This wasn't abstract; their early survival hinged on it.

Without mutual assistance and engagement with each other, they could not have built their homes and sustained their harvests. The Puritans formed institutions like town meetings and communal worship that created social and moral bonds that helped them to weather famine and disease. They established reciprocal relationships with the Wampanoag people, whose knowledge and assistance proved essential to their survival. The first Thanksgiving in 1621 celebrated not just a successful harvest, but this successful web of social alliances.

Thanksgiving wasn’t just celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621. The colonists in Virginia celebrated their own version in 1619. Martin Frobisher led an English expedition that celebrated it in 1578 on Baffin Island, and the 800 Spanish settlers of St. Augustine celebrated it as far back as 1565. Thanksgiving in America has been celebrated in many ways, in many places, each as distinct as the next, but all based on a shared sense of community and common destiny.

The Evolution of American Community

For much of our history, communities were geographic necessities. You knew your neighbors because you needed them—to raise a barn, harvest crops, care for the sick, or defend the settlement. Towns grew around churches, schools, and main streets where people naturally congregated.

The 20th century saw an explosion of voluntary associations that Robert Putnam famously documented in "Bowling Alone." From Rotary clubs to bowling leagues, from church groups to union halls, Americans created thick networks of civic engagement. These organizations served as the connective tissue of community life, bridging different social classes and creating what sociologists call "social capital"—the trust and reciprocity that make collective action possible.

The Unraveling: Challenges to Modern Community

Today, that fabric is being stressed in multiple ways. We have never lived in a time where geographic space meant so little. Our political jurisdictions, economic livelihoods and social networks have never been more disconnected. We face a constellation of challenges that would have been unimaginable to earlier generations:

• The Loss of the Town Square: All the old New England towns used to have “Greens” or “Commons.” One of the most important features of the older great cities of America are their parks – Central Park in New York, the mall in Washington, Lincoln Park and Centennial Park in Chicago and how they fostered serendipity and chance encounters. Now, many modern communities are based on straight lines, and circles and squares have been sidelined in order to prioritize efficiency, but where do you meet people casually or socially between the Best Buy and your house? Front porches used to be an essential staple of American houses, now outdoor living is often centered in fenced-in back yards. Privacy has become so important, that sidewalks are causes for controversy.

• Digital Displacement: We're more connected than ever through technology, yet lonelier. Social media creates the illusion of community while often replacing face-to-face interaction. We can have hundreds of "friends" online while barely knowing our next-door neighbors. In fact, if we do know our next-door neighbors, it’s probably because we engage with them via online platforms like Facebook or Next Door.

• Economic Disruption: The shift from stable, place-based employment to gig economies and remote work has severed traditional workplace communities. People move more frequently for opportunities, leaving behind the accumulated relationships that once defined a lifetime. Work used to be more of a communal setting, but with work-from-home opportunities skyrocketing, even that can be self-isolating.

• Institutional Decline: Churches, civic organizations, and unions—once the backbone of community life—have seen dramatic membership declines. Fewer Americans participate in the regular, structured interactions that build lasting bonds. Since the US transitioned to an all-volunteer army in 1971, the bonds of military service have even declined. There used to be over 500 military prep academies before World War 2. Now there are fewer than 30.

• Political Polarization: Perhaps most troubling, we've sorted ourselves into increasingly homogeneous bubbles, both geographically and digitally. The common ground where people of different perspectives once had to work together has shrunk.

• Natural Disasters and other Stresses: The way our system is set up, you need a bureaucracy in order to access bureaucracy. The result is that when extreme weather events decimate a region, the largest communities are able to get the tools and resources they need much more easily, contributing to the ongoing urbanization and depopulation of the countryside in vulnerable areas that the country has been experiencing for many years.

  
  

What Still Works: The Resilient Elements

Yet amidst these challenges, encouraging patterns persist. Thank God for Little League. Parents still connect through schools and youth sports leagues. Community gardens bring together neighbors around shared purpose. Local businesses serve as gathering spots and sponsors of community events. Faith communities, while diminished, remain vital centers for many. There’s a lot of good will and neighborliness still alive in this country.

Building Forward: A Blueprint for Stronger Communities

So how do we protect what works and build communities that serve everyone, including future generations? The answer lies in being as intentional about community-building as the Pilgrims were, while adapting to modern realities.

• Redesign Our Spaces: We need more development patterns that encourage interaction—walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use spaces, public parks and gathering places like libraries, cafes, community centers, and other spaces that aren't home or work where people can gather informally. The physical environment shapes social possibility. When I was a kid, the idea of “play dates” was unheard of. Parks create unstructured opportunities for socialization that may be more important than ever in this digital age. The point is not density per se. There are many valid reasons why so many families want single-family detached homes. The point is to reduce barriers to serendipity – the ability to make new friends and find common ground.

• Make Participation Accessible: Community organizations must adapt to modern schedules and needs. Provide childcare at meetings. Offer multiple ways to participate. Make it easier, not harder, for people to show up.

• Bridge the Divides: Actively create opportunities for people from different backgrounds, generations, and perspectives to work together on concrete projects. Service projects, community improvement initiatives, and local problem-solving can unite people across differences. Volunteerism is a beautiful trait of this country.

• Invest in Youth: Build community habits early through youth programs, service learning, and opportunities for young people to contribute meaningfully to community life. The patterns established in youth often persist.

• Leverage Technology Wisely: Use digital tools to facilitate, not replace, in-person connection. Online platforms can help organize neighborhood events, coordinate volunteer efforts, and maintain ties between gatherings—but they shouldn't become substitutes for real interaction.

• Rebuild Institutions: We need modern versions of the civic organizations that once bound us together. These might look different from Rotary clubs and bowling leagues, but they must serve the same function of bringing people together regularly around shared purpose.

• Address Economic Foundations: Strong communities require economic stability. Small businesses and other organizations like churches, community theaters, and nonprofit organizations transform bedroom neighborhoods into places where people can work close to where they choose to live.

• Be Social Together: we need opportunities to break bread and share food together, beyond Thanksgiving. The best way to break down polarization is to share human moments – coffee, conversation, shared activities. Initiatives that help people find common ground are so important.

The Covenant Renewed

This Thanksgiving, as we gather with family and friends, we're practicing community at its most basic level. The challenge is to extend that spirit beyond our tables, to rebuild the connective tissue that makes us not just residents of the same geography, but genuine neighbors in the fullest sense.

The fabric of American community was never perfect, nothing ever is. But the impulse was right: we need each other, and we have to give permission to ourselves to like each other. This Thanksgiving let’s not forget to give thanks for each other, and the ties that bind us together.

What are you doing to strengthen community where you live? We invite you to share your thoughts and stories across ISD’s media platforms.