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The increasingly rootless nature of Americans provides a fresh perspective for assessing the drift of modern societies.

While the footlooseness of Americans as pioneers was a source of vitality and charm, several of the new forms that the accelerating rootlessness of Americans is taking should be a cause of alarm.

Great numbers of inhabitants feel unconnected to either people and places, and throughout much of the nation there is a breakdown in community living.

In fact there is a general shattering of small-group life. A number of forces are promoting social fragmentation. We are confronted with a society that is coming apart at the seams. And in the process we appear to be breeding a legacy of coldness in many of the coming generation.

– Vance Packard: A Nation of Stranger, 1972