Honorable Mention 2005 Thomas and Znaniecki Award from the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association

"[This] is the most valuable single collection that deals with the sprawling domain flagged by its subtitle: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States .... The many virtues of Not Just Black and White render it a great gift to us all."
-JOURNAL OF AMERICAN ETHNIC HISTORY

"In this marvelous volume, the leading historical and sociological thinkers consider how American ways of organizing society, culture, power, and place have framed relations among immigrants, racial minority groups, and native whites. This extraor- dinary combination of historiography, theoretical synthesis, and case studies is now the best single volume on these topics."
-JOHN MOLLENKOPF, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center

"Not Just Black and White brings some of the finest minds across the disciplines to bear on U.S. diversity in all its depth and complexity. Rare among collections of this kind, Nancy Foner and George Fredrickson's volume sets immigration in full conversation with the contiguous histories and legacies of slavery and conquest. The resulting analysis is vibrant, politically alive, rich in its provocations. This is a terrific contribution-a great tool in the classroom, to be sure, but with any luck it will leave its mark on our civic life as well."
-MATTHEW FRYE JACOBSON, professor of American studies, history, and African American studies, Yale University

"'Presentism' is too often the social scientist's abiding sin and all the more so among the students of international migration, who often tell us that today's mass migrations represent something never seen before. Unfortunately, the present is but tomorrow's past, which is why the quest to understand our own times requires systematic comparison with the mass migrations of the century that's just gone by. For just such an effort, Nancy Foner and George Fredrickson's collection of original essays by historians, political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists is the ideal source. Asking how immigration has remade those divided people we call Americans, this book yields surprising insights into both the continuities between 'now' and 'then,' as well as those qualities that make the two eras of mass migration distinct."
-ROGER WALDINGER, professor and chair, Department of Sociology, U.C.L.A.

Immigration is one of the driving forces behind social change in the United States, continually reshaping the way Americans think about race and ethnicity. How have various racial and ethnic groups—including immigrants from around the globe, indigenous racial minorities, and African Americans—related to each other both historically and today? How have these groups been formed and transformed in the context of the continuous influx of new arrivals to this country? In Not Just Black and White, editors Nancy Foner and George M. Fredrickson bring together a distinguished group of social scientists and historians to consider the relationship between immigration and the ways in which concepts of race and ethnicity have evolved in the United States from the end of the nineteenth century to the present.

Not Just Black and White opens with an examination of historical and theoretical perspectives on race and ethnicity. The late John Higham, in the last scholarly contribution of his distinguished career, defines ethnicity broadly as a sense of community based on shared historical memories, using this concept to shed new light on the main contours of American history. The volume also considers the shifting role of state policy with regard to the construction of race and ethnicity. Former U.S. census director Kenneth Prewitt provides a definitive account of how racial and ethnic classifications in the census developed over time and how they operate today. Other contributors address the concept of panethnicity in relation to whites, Latinos, and Asian Americans, and explore socioeconomic trends that have affected, and continue to affect, the development of ethno-racial identities and relations. Joel Perlmann and Mary Waters offer a revealing comparison of patterns of intermarriage among ethnic groups in the early twentieth century and those today. The book concludes with a look at the nature of intergroup relations, both past and present, with special emphasis on how America’s principal non-immigrant minority—African Americans—fits into this mosaic.

With its attention to contemporary and historical scholarship, Not Just Black and White provides a wealth of new insights about immigration, race, and ethnicity that are fundamental to our understanding of how American society has developed thus far, and what it may look like in the future.

NANCY FONER is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, State University of New York, Purchase.

GEORGE M. FREDRICKSON is Edgar E. Robinson Professor of History Emeritus, Stanford University.

CONTRIBUTORS: Richard Alba, James Barrett, Albert M. Camarillo, Stephen Cornell, Nancy Denton, Yen Le Espiritu, Neil Foley, Steven Gold, Douglas Hartmann, Victoria Hattam, John Higham, Jose Itzigsohn, Gerald Jaynes, Philip Kasinitz, Erika Lee, John Lie, Joel Perlmann, Kenneth Prewitt, David Roediger, Joe W. Trotter, Mary C. Waters.

"Immigrants and Welfare assembles the authoritative set of papers on the history, law, and social science of immigration and welfare reform. It is required reading as the United States prepares for an epic exploration of immigration and immigrants in a well-ordered society: How do societies recruit their members? What are the criteria for membership? What characteristics are desirable and undesirable in recruits? What characteristics merit differential treatment? How do societies mentor their recruits? How do societies put boundaries on their bounty?"
-GUILLERMINA JASSO, Silver Professor, Department of Sociology, New York University

"In the mid-1990s, the U.S. government not only 'ended welfare as we know it,' but it also fundamentally altered its relationships with immigrants and their progeny through changes in welfare and immigration law that have been much less well-regarded in policy and research circles. The legislative changes created new distinctions in the definition of what it meant to be a member of U.S. society and to be eligible for needed assistance, drawing sharper lines between immigrants and natives, and within groups of immigrants. In this incisive volume, Michael E. Fix and his colleagues give us the most comprehensive compilation of the evidence on immigrants' use of public benefits before and after welfare reform. It both challenges some of the popular misconceptions about immigrants' costs to the polity that fueled a backlash against newcomers to the country in the welfare and immigration law changes of the 1990s, and vigorously informs us about the impacts of those changes for immigrants and their children. Immigrants and Welfare is timely and much-needed. Just as the nation prepares in the coming year to debate necessary comprehensive immigration reform, we can only hope that our leaders take these facts into account and lead us to where the evidence and our values suggest is a better place."
-AJAY CHAUDRY, director, Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population, The Urban Institute

"Immigrants and Welfare takes a careful look at the aftermath of the landmark welfare reform legislation of the mid-1990s. The volume's contributors examine the reweaving of the American safety net for immigrants and their families, both citizens and noncitizens. The research challenges oft-made assertions that the U.S. welfare system provides a strong magnet for immigrants destined to become dependent on public assistance, and instead points to the potential benefits of providing more coherent and less restrictive policies for new arrivals and their families. This informed volume is necessary reading for those interested in the continuing debate of U.S. immigration policy."
-MICHAEL J. WHITE, professor of sociology and director, Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University 

The lore of the immigrant who comes to the United States to take advantage of our welfare system has a long history in America’s collective mythology, but it has little basis in fact. The so-called problem of immigrants on the dole was nonetheless a major concern of the 1996 welfare reform law, the impact of which is still playing out today. While legal immigrants continue to pay taxes and are eligible for the draft, welfare reform has severely limited their access to government supports in times of crisis. Edited by Michael Fix, Immigrants and Welfare rigorously assesses the welfare reform law, questions whether its immigrant provisions were ever really necessary, and examines its impact on legal immigrants’ ability to integrate into American society.

Immigrants and Welfare draws on fields from demography and law to developmental psychology. The first part of the volume probes the politics behind the welfare reform law, its legal underpinnings, and what it may mean for integration policy. Contributor Ron Haskins makes a case for welfare reform’s ultimate success but cautions that excluding noncitizen children (future workers) from benefits today will inevitably have serious repercussions for the American economy down the road. Michael Wishnie describes the implications of the law for equal protection of immigrants under the U.S. Constitution.

The second part of the book focuses on empirical research regarding immigrants’ propensity to use benefits before the law passed, and immigrants’ use and hardship levels afterwards. Jennifer Van Hook and Frank Bean analyze immigrants’ benefit use before the law was passed in order to address the contested sociological theories that immigrants are inclined to welfare use and that it slows their assimilation. Randy Capps, Michael Fix, and Everett Henderson track trends before and after welfare reform in legal immigrants’ use of the major federal benefit programs affected by the law. Leighton Ku looks specifically at trends in food stamps and Medicaid use among noncitizen children and adults and documents the declining health insurance coverage of noncitizen parents and children. Finally, Ariel Kalil and Danielle Crosby use longitudinal data from Chicago to examine the health of children in immigrant families that left welfare.

Even though few states took the federal government’s invitation with the 1996 welfare reform law to completely freeze legal immigrants out of the social safety net, many of the law’s most far-reaching provisions remain in place and have significant implications for immigrants. Immigrants and Welfare takes a balanced look at the politics and history of immigrant access to safety-net supports and the ongoing impacts of welfare.

MICHAEL E. FIX is senior vice president and director of studies at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and co-director of MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy.

CONTRIBUTORS: Michael E. Fix, Frank D. Bean, Randy Capps, Danielle A. Crosby, Ron Haskins, Everett Henderson, Ariel Kalil, Neeraj Kaushal, Leighton Ku, Jennifer Van Hook, and Michael J. Wishnie.

Copublished with the Migration Policy Institute

Winner of the 2007 Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Social Demography

"Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout have written an imaginative chronicle of the century that just ended. While there are palpable differences in how the country looked in 1900 and 2000, they point to some striking similarities ... [They] argue that the amount of schooling a person receives now overshadows nativity, race, or income as the nation's prime divide. 'Since mid-century,' they suggest, 'education became a key sorter of Americans.' 'Differences in living standards and lifestyles' between those with a bachelor's degree and those without it 'had widened greatly.' The years ahead, they say, will see a deep divide separating 'education haves and have-nots.' While this is a widely accepted view, it hasn't had the scrutiny it needs."
-THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

"Century of Difference is extraordinarily ambitious. Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout set out to describe the key changes in American society over the course of a century, focusing on family composition, urbanization and suburbanization, income, employment, race and ethnicity, religion, and the culture wars. Their main challenge was to identify the salient changes in American society and to describe them clearly, showing how different subpopulations were affected. The book succeeds brilliantly. The writing is remarkably engaging, even though it is all about numbers. This will become a classic of historical sociology."
-STEVEN RUGGLES, University of Minnesota

"This landmark study carefully charts major social changes over the twentieth century that have profoundly affected our American lives. Like all good sociology, it provides a big picture interpretation that helps us better understand our own experiences in the context of larger social realities. History here illuminates the important, current trajectories of life. Century of Difference will serve social scientists and historians alike for many years to come as the authoritative reference on the previous century's key social changes."
-CHRISTIAN SMITH, University of Notre Dame

"Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout have written the definitive history of social and economic change in twentieth-century America. They document how we have gone from a society where ethnicity and race shaped our lives to one where education shapes our lives. Must reading for all policymakers and social scientists."
-DORA L. COSTA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In every generation, Americans have worried about the solidarity of the nation. Since the days of the Mayflower, those already settled here have wondered how newcomers with different cultures, values, and (frequently) skin color would influence America. Would the new groups create polarization and disharmony? Thus far, the United States has a remarkable track record of incorporating new people into American society, but acceptance and assimilation have never meant equality. In Century of Difference, Claude Fischer and Michael Hout provide a compelling—and often surprising—new take on the divisions and commonalities among the American public over the tumultuous course of the twentieth century.

Using a hundred years worth of census and opinion poll data, Century of Difference shows how the social, cultural, and economic fault lines in American life shifted in the last century. It demonstrates how distinctions that once loomed large later dissipated, only to be replaced by new ones. Fischer and Hout find that differences among groups by education, age, and income expanded, while those by gender, region, national origin, and, even in some ways, race narrowed. As the twentieth century opened, a person’s national origin was of paramount importance, with hostilities running high against Africans, Chinese, and southern and eastern Europeans. Today, diverse ancestries are celebrated with parades. More important than ancestry for today’s Americans is their level of schooling. Americans with advanced degrees are increasingly putting distance between themselves and the rest of society—in both a literal and a figurative sense. Differences in educational attainment are tied to expanding inequalities in earnings, job quality, and neighborhoods. Still, there is much that ties all Americans together. Century of Difference knocks down myths about a growing culture war. Using seventy years of survey data, Fischer and Hout show that Americans did not become more fragmented over values in the late-twentieth century, but rather were united over shared ideals of self-reliance, family, and even religion.

As public debate has flared up over such matters as immigration restrictions, the role of government in redistributing resources to the poor, and the role of religion in public life, it is important to take stock of the divisions and linkages that have typified the U.S. population over time. Century of Difference lucidly profiles the evolution of American social and cultural differences over the last century, examining the shifting importance of education, marital status, race, ancestry, gender, and other factors on the lives of Americans past and present.

CLAUDE S. FISCHER is professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

MICHAEL HOUT is professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

A Volume in the RSF Census Series

Provides a selection of existing and new measures of family change. The statistical time series are presented and organized around the topics of marriage, marital status, households, fertility, divorce, dependency, work and income, and poverty. The series selected for inclusion were chosen because of an apparent or assumed significant change which they displayed. They are illustrated by graphs and accompanied by a brief commentary. The statistical series are numbered in an appendix, and sources of the data are cited at the foot of the page of commentary.

ABBOTT L. FERRISS was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Emory University.

Presents statistical evidence of trends in the status of women relative to the status of men. Organized around the major life activities and concerns of women, the book deals with such topics as education, marriage, fertility, employment, health and illness, and death. The author interprets the statistical findings and presents suggestions for further analytical methods and interpretations. The two major surveys from which much of the data in this study are drawn, the Current Population Survey and the National Health Survey, are reviewed in two appendices.

ABBOTT L. FERRISS was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Emory University.

Assembles, collates, and analyzes data bearing on trends in American education. The author presents the basic data on school enrollment, retention, and attainment, indicating changes in the educational characteristics of the population and comparable time-series statistics on teachers and school finances reflecting change within the school system itself. Dr. Ferriss then relates these data to a statement of educational goals set some ten years ago, utilizing the data to provide an assessment of progress toward those goals.

ABBOTT L. FERRISS was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Emory University.

Winner of the 1998 Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Social Demography

"A fascinating and authoritative account of American social history since 1960 as viewed through the prism of government statistics....[Farley] uses publicly available data, straight forward methods, and modest...language, to provide more information and insight about recent social trends than any other volume in print." —American Journal of Sociology

"A brilliant piece of work. Farley is absolutely masterful at taking tens of thousands of national survey statistics and weaving from them a fascinating and beautifully illustrated tapestry of who we are." —Barry Bluestone, Frank L. Boyden Professor of Political Economy, University of Massachusetts, Boston

The New American Reality presents a compelling portrait of an America strikingly different from what it was just forty years ago.Gone is the idealized vision of a two-parent, father-supported Ozzie and Harriet society. In its place is an America of varied races andethnic backgrounds, where families take on many forms and mothers frequently work outside the home. Drawing on a definitive analysis of the past four U.S. censuses, author Reynolds Farley reveals a country that offers new opportunities for a broader spectrum of people, while at the same time generating frustration and apprehension for many who once thought their futures secure.

The trends that have so transformed the nation were kindled in the 1960s, a watershed period during which many Americans redefined their attitudes toward the rights of women and blacks. The New American Reality describes the activism, federal policymaking, and legal victories that eliminated overtracial and sexual discrimination. But along with open doors came new challenges. Divorce and out-of-wedlock births grew commonplace, forcing more women to raise children alone and—despite improved wages—increasing their chances of falling into poverty. Residential segregation, inadequate schooling, and a particularly high ratio of female-headed families severely impaired the economic progress of African Americans, many of whom were left behind in declining central cities as businesses migrated to suburbs. A new generation of immigrants from many nations joined the ranks of those working to support families and improve their prospects, and rapidly transformed the nation's ethnic composition.

In the 1970s, unprecedented economic restructuring on a global scale created unexpected setbacks for the middle class. The long era of postwar prosperity ended as the nation's dominant industry shifted from manufacturing to services, competition from foreign producers increased, interest rates rose, and a new emphasis on technology and cost-cutting created a demand for more sophisticated skills in the workplace. The economic recovery of the 1980s generated greater prosperity for the well-educated and highly skilled, and created many low paying jobs, but offered little to remedy the stagnant and declining wages of the middle class. Income inequalitybecame a defining feature in the economic life of America: overall, the rich got richer while the poor and middle class found it increasingly difficult to meet their financial demands.

The New American Reality reports some good news about America. Our lives are longer and healthier, the elderly are much better off than ever before, consumer spending power has increased, and minorities and women have many more opportunities. But this book does not shy away from the significant problems facing large portions of the population, and provides a valuable perspective on efforts to remedy them. The New American Reality offers the information necessary to understandthe critical trends affecting America today, from how we earn a living to how and when we form families, where we live, and whether or not we will continue to prosper.

REYNOLDS FARLEY is professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and research scientist at its Population Studies Center.

A Volume in the RSF Census Series

For more than 200 years, America has turned to the decennial census to answer questions about itself. More than a mere head count, the census is the authoritative source of information on where people live, the types of families they establish, how they identify themselves, the jobs they hold, and much more. The latest census, taken at the cusp of the new millennium, gathered more information than ever before about Americans and their lifestyles. The American People, edited by respected demographers Reynolds Farley and John Haaga, provides a snapshot of those findings that is at once analytically rich and accessible to readers at all levels.

The American People addresses important questions about national life that census data are uniquely able to answer. Mary Elizabeth Hughes and Angela O'Rand compare the educational attainment, economic achievement, and family arrangements of the baby boom cohort with those of preceding generations. David Cotter, Joan Hermsen, and Reeve Vanneman find that, unlike progress made in previous decades, the 1990s were a time of stability—and possibly even retrenchment—with regard to gender equality. Sonya Tafoya, Hans Johnson, and Laura Hill examine a new development for the census in 2000: the decision to allow people to identify themselves by more than one race. They discuss how people form multiracial identities and dissect the racial and ethnic composition of the roughly seven million Americans who chose more than one racial classification. Former Census Bureau director Kenneth Prewitt discusses the importance of the census to democratic fairness and government efficiency, and notes how the high stakes accompanying the census count (especially the allocation of Congressional seats and federal funds) have made the census a lightening rod for criticism from politicians.

The census has come a long way since 1790, when U.S. Marshals setout on horseback to count the population. Today, it holds a wealth of information about who we are, where we live, what we do, and how much we have changed. The American People provides a rich, detailed examination of the trends that shape our lives and paints a comprehensive portrait of the country we live in today.

REYNOLDS FARLEY is professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and research scientist in its Population Studies Center. As author, editor, advisor, and interviewer to the U.S. Census Bureau, he has been an active participant in each of the last four censuses.

JOHN HAAGA is director of Domestic Programs and director of the Center for Public Information on Population Research at the Population Reference Bureau.

CONTRIBUTORS: Kenneth Prewitt, Sheldon Danziger, Peter Gottschalk, Liana C. Sayer, Philip N. Cohen, Lynne M. Caspar, David A. Cotter, Joan M. Hermsen, Reeve Vanneman, Dowell Myers, Daniel T. Lichter, Zhenchao Qian, William P. O'Hare, Mary Elizabeth Hughes, Angela M. O'Rand, Mary M. Kritz, Douglas T. Gurak, Frank D. Bean, Jennifer Lee, Jeanne Batalova, Mark Leach, Sonya M. Tafoya, Hans Johnson, Laura E. Hill, Rogelio Saenz, Michael A. Stoll, Yu Xie, Kimberly A. Goyette.

A Volume in the RSF Census Series

 "The Census is a most valuable source of information about our lives; these volumes make the story it has to tell accessible to all who want to know." —Lee Rainwater, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

"A lucid and balanced overview of major trends in the United States and essential reading for policymakers. State of the Union is a reality check that provides the factual basis for policy analysis."—Peter Gottschalk, Boston College

State of the Union: America in the 1990s is the definitive new installment to the United States Census Series, carrying forward a tradition of census-based reports on American society that began with the 1930 Census. These two volumes offer a systematic, authoritative, and concise interpretation of what the 1990 Census reveals about the American people today.

• Volume One: Economic Trends focuses on the schism between the wealthy and the poor that intensified in the 1980s as wages went up for highly educated persons but fell for those with less than a college degree. This gap was reflected geographically, as industries continued their migration from crumbling inner cities to booming edge cities, often leaving behind an impoverished minority population. Young male workers lost ground in the 1980s, but women made substantial strides, dramatically reducing the gender gap in earnings. The amount of family income devoted to housing rose over the decade, but while housing quality improved for wealthy, older Americans, it declined for younger, poorer families.
• Volume Two: Social Trends examines the striking changes in American families and the rapid shifts in our racial and ethnic composition. Americans are marrying much later and divorcing more often, and increasing numbers of unmarried women are giving birth. These shifts have placed a growing proportion of children at risk of poverty. In glaring contrast, the elderly were the only group to make gains in the 1980s, and are now healthier and more prosperous than ever before. The concentrated immigration of Asians and Latinos to a few states and cities created extraordinary pockets of diversity within the population.

Throughout the 1990s, the nation will debate questions about the state of the nation and the policies that should be adopted to address changing conditions. Will continued technological change lead to even more economic polarization? Will education become an increasingly important factor in determining earnings potential? Did new immigrants stimulate the economy or take jobs away from American-born workers? Will we be able to support the rapidly growing population of older retirees? State of the Union will help us to answer these questions and better understand how well the nation is adapting to the pervasive social and economic transformations of our era.

REYNOLDS FARLEY is professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and research scientist in its Population Studies Center.

CONTRIBUTORS: Claudette E. Bennett, Lynne Casper,  Barry R. Chiswick, William  H. Frey,  Roderick J. Harrison,  Dennis P. Hogan, Daniel T. Lichter,  Sara McLanahan,  Teresa A. Sullivan,  Ramon Torrecilha,  Judith Treas.

A Volume in the RSF Census Series

 "The Census is a most valuable source of information about our lives; these volumes make the story it has to tell accessible to all who want to know." —Lee Rainwater, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences

"A lucid and balanced overview of major trends in the United States and essential reading for policymakers. State of the Union is a reality check that provides the factual basis for policy analysis."—Peter Gottschalk, Boston College

State of the Union: America in the 1990s is the definitive new installment to the United States Census Series, carrying forward a tradition of census-based reports on American society that began with the 1930 Census. These two volumes offer a systematic, authoritative, and concise interpretation of what the 1990 Census reveals about the American people today.

• Volume One: Economic Trends focuses on the schism between the wealthy and the poor that intensified in the 1980s as wages went up for highly educated persons but fell for those with less than a college degree. This gap was reflected geographically, as industries continued their migration from crumbling inner cities to booming edge cities, often leaving behind an impoverished minority population. Young male workers lost ground in the 1980s, but women made substantial strides, dramatically reducing the gender gap in earnings. The amount of family income devoted to housing rose over the decade, but while housing quality improved for wealthy, older Americans, it declined for younger, poorer families.
• Volume Two: Social Trends examines the striking changes in American families and the rapid shifts in our racial and ethnic composition. Americans are marrying much later and divorcing more often, and increasing numbers of unmarried women are giving birth. These shifts have placed a growing proportion of children at risk of poverty. In glaring contrast, the elderly were the only group to make gains in the 1980s, and are now healthier and more prosperous than ever before. The concentrated immigration of Asians and Latinos to a few states and cities created extraordinary pockets of diversity within the population.

Throughout the 1990s, the nation will debate questions about the state of the nation and the policies that should be adopted to address changing conditions. Will continued technological change lead to even more economic polarization? Will education become an increasingly important factor in determining earnings potential? Did new immigrants stimulate the economy or take jobs away from American-born workers? Will we be able to support the rapidly growing population of older retirees? State of the Union will help us to answer these questions and better understand how well the nation is adapting to the pervasive social and economic transformations of our era.

REYNOLDS FARLEY is professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and research scientist in its Population Studies Center.

CONTRIBUTORS: Suzanne Bianchi, John D. Kasarda, Frank Levy, Robert D. Mare, Dowell Myers, James R. Wetzel, Jennifer R. Wolch.

A Volume in the RSF Census Series