“Palaces for the People” by Eric Klinenberg

Character towns rely on social infrastructure. “In Palaces for the People, Klinenberg, a sociologist and director of New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge, builds upon his 2002 book, Heat Wave. That work reported social isolation and neighborhood breakdown as key reasons so many people died in Chicago during one torrid week in the summer of 1995. He found many fewer deaths in areas with strong communal ties forged by shared gathering places.

“Klinenberg calls settings that boost communities and foster mutual assistance networks ‘social infrastructure.’ His new book devotes considerable attention to libraries, which have reinvented themselves with services such as computer training and job-preparedness programs. Public events at libraries bring the isolated into contact with others and bring together diverse communities. Teens with tumultuous home lives find a place of refuge to study and hang out with friends.