STILL BOWLING ALONE? THE POST-9/11 SPLIT

On college campuses nationwide, this civic-engagement "youth movement" has evoked the spirit of the early John F. Kennedy years.\n19 Among other things, this means that the overall rise in youth political engagement and volunteering since 9/11 masks a pair of subtrends that are headed in different directions, with lower-class youth growing less involved while better-off youngsters become more involved. Since public discussion in the United States often tends to conflate class and race, it is important to emphasize that this growing gap among different groups of young people is about the former and not just the latter.