This controversial book challenges the myth that individualism necessarily weakens commitments to the common good.

It examines environmental and other activist groups in which individualism sometimes enhances political commitment.

Rather than criticise individualism and favour a return to traditional values, Paul Lichterman examines the untraditional, personalised politics of many recent social movements and invites us to rethink common understandings of commitment, community, and individualism in a post-traditional world.