Americans, despite their individualism, are often described as a nation of “joiners.” For many organizations, this produces a relatively passive pool of members who offer economic support in lobbying issues of the environment, ethnic heritage issues, or community organization. Others focus on service—volunteers in troubled areas or with special populations. Still others represent professional identities—doctors, veterans, or teachers—whose national assemblies may shape policy issues for the group and influence national policy. College alumni associations are important in fundraising and recruitment, while other educational institutions may also promote sociability and support. Still other clubs are more loosely defined civic or interest groups, which may nonetheless, sponsor important initiatives. Some of these, as well as other groups, offer social and recreational spaces—whether middle-class country clubs or local ethnic and religious groups. Joining thus also divides Americans according to race, class, gender, ethnicity and locale, even as it may bring them together with cross-cutting identities.

Among the most widespread associations are those that offer broad civic and fraternal appeal. Of these, some are clearly offspring of older European Masonic movements or similar ritualized organizations—the 1950s sitcom The Honeymooners stressed the importance of lodge meetings, which was echoed in the later Flintstones and even The Simpsons. Ritual elements are also important in religiously affiliated associations like the Catholic Knights of Columbus and the Jewish Hadassah.

The Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Optimists and other groups foster civic involvement in schools, reform and international connections, while also offering regular social functions for urban movers. Many of these have been adult and male-dominated, although offering female auxiliaries and high-school affiliates; this division has been challenged since the 1960s.

Women’s organizations, however, have also played important organizational roles. The League of Women Voters, for example, has been active in sponsoring political debates and voter information. Garden clubs—traditionally but not exclusively a woman’s domain—have been involved in civic beautification. Book clubs, service clubs, and religious and charitable organizations have channeled generations of women’s involvement in public life. In some cases, however, this has been marked by class exclusion based on history—Daughters of the American Revolution or Daughters of the Confederacy for example.

Many of these clubs, female and male, have been organized around divisions of race and class. African American clubs, including Colored Women’s Clubs, fraternities and sororities and religious associations also exercised strong parapolitical functions in eras of segregation, while they have delineated the associations of a distinctive black middle class. New immigrants have also formed new associations around religious and family organizations.

Such a list of American associations might stretch to include fan clubs, hobby and interest groups, pet owners, amateur athletics, motoring, institutional support and a myriad of other reasons Americans find to come together and be different. In literature and mass media, moreover, these associations map out other meanings of class, sociability and interest—from the bored housewife to the person on the move in politics, reinforcing the complex geography of American identities.