2000 Census

The Foundation has provided a major award to the Population Reference Bureau for a series of short, authoritative reports, each examining what the new census figures reveal about a major social issue, such as inequality, immigration, urbanization, or the circumstances of racial and ethnic minorities. The reports have been compiled into a Russell Sage volume, The American People: Census 2000. The Foundation is also supporting two full-length books aimed a wide general readership, which will reflect upon some of the abiding themes in American society in the light of the new census and the new millenium. The first book, U.S.A.: A Century of Difference, by sociologists Michael Hout and Claude Fischer of the University of California, Berkeley, will describe America's ongoing struggle to reconcile the great racial, religious, and economic diversity of its peoples with the desire for unity and a sense of shared nationhood. The second book, One Nation Divisible: What America Was and What It Is Becoming, by historians Michael Katz and Mark Stern of the University of Pennsylvania, will show how the emergence of the United States as a global economic leader, a technological pace-setter, and a magnet for global immigration has shaped American life and work.