Adam B. Seligman.
The Problem of Trust.
Princeton University Press. 1997
In this sequel to his widely admired book, The Idea of Civil Society,
Adam Seligman analyzes trust as a fundamental issue of our present social relationships.
Setting his discussion in historical and intellectual context,
Seligman asks whether trust—which many contemporary critics,
from Robert Putnam through Francis Fukuyama,
identify as essential in creating a cohesive society—can
continue to serve this vital role.
Seligman traverses a wide range of examples,
from the minutiae of everyday manners to central problems of political and economic life,
showing throughout how civility and trust are being displaced in contemporary life
by new “extremal” system constraints inimical to the development of trust.