American society, in putting a premium on mobility and economic progress, too often slights community and a sense of "place." An appreciation of place is the essential basis for local communities that cultivate civic engagement and leadership, and that nurture healthy individual identity and public virtues.

Why Place Matters looks into ways that public policy, with democratic support, can foster a richer, more sustaining way of life for the American people, without resorting to utopian schemes.

Contributors to the anthology include distinguished scholars and writers such as poet Dana Gioia, geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, urbanist Witold Rybczynski, architect Philip Bess, essayists Christine Rosen and Ari Schulman, philosopher Roger Scruton, transportation planner Gary Toth, political philosopher Mark T. Mitchell, and historians Russell Jacoby and Joseph Amato.