Few works of sociology have captured the public imagination like Habits of the Heart published in 1985, written collectively by Robert Bellah and colleagues, Richard Madsen, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven Tipton (Bellah et al. 1996). The work tapped into a vein of existential concern during the Reagan era when Americans seemed to be becoming more individualistic and self- centred, while less happy and satisfied with their lives and one another. Bellah and his co- researchers drew out the long historical traditions, especially civic and religious, which contributed to these patterns and ways of being, traditions which Americans seemed to have lost touch with. As though on autopilot, many went through life seeking particularistic, increasingly narrow and self- centred notions of success and self- fulfilment. Yet, without concomitant connection with civil society and communities, these tendencies often appeared to result in alienation rather than satisfaction.

In many ways, Habits is a book about continuities and variations. Both in 1985 and in the preface to the second edition published 10 years later, the authors noted legacies of earlier trends in American individualism, which provided contrast against which the emerging patterns of what we would now call ‘neoliberal’ American society were visible. This chapter will draw out the authors’ assessment of the situation then, before extending the view into the present. Though contemporary society may appear quite different, with iPhones, fake news, consumer debt and opioid epidemics contributing to unprecedented levels of political polarization and economic deprivation, the work of Bellah et al. is perhaps more relevant than ever. Revisiting the work reveals similar, deep continuities which help us draw contrasts to orient to a rapidly changing globalizing (or perhaps de- globalizing) world.

Contextualizing the discussion, we will consider the broader possibility represented by the ‘communitarianism’ debate in the 1980s and 1990s into which Habits was slotted. The book provided a means of understanding what is lost when values and questions of the good life are marginalized within an increasingly self- centred, adolescent American culture. Entering into the nascent ‘communitarian moment’, the fate of the book seemed to follow the trajectory of such questions following the ascendance of Third Way centre- leftism. The chapter concludes by considering the absence today of any similar discussion of communitarian alternatives to neoliberalism, again suggesting we may need to revisit the insights of Habits of the Heart more urgently than ever.