In Search of ‘the Commons’ in Modern America

My Rhode Island Town Has Had a Communal Green Since 1694, but Today’s Public Spaces Are Complicated and Splintered

Zócalo’s editors are diving into our archives and throwing it back to some of our favorite pieces. This week: Historian Steven Lubar searches for “the commons” in his Rhode Island town and finds something “increasingly complicated, splintered.”

“The commons” is a concept, an ideal. The commons are property we all share, property that’s owned not by any one person or group, but that’s held—well, in common. It also has a distinct history in the U.S., harking back to early American towns having an actual …