Who has ruled New York? Has power become more concentrated—or more widely and democratically dispersed—in American cities over the past one hundred years? How did New York come to have its modern physical and institutional shape? Focusing on the period when New York City was transformed from a nineteenth-century mercantile center to a modern metropolis, David C. Hammack offers an entirely new view of the history of power and public policy in the nation's largest urban community.

Opening with a fresh and original interpretation of the metropolitan region's economic and social history between 1890 and 1910, Hammack goes on to show how various population groups used their economic, social, cultural, and political resources to shape the decisions that created the modern city. As New York grew in size and complexity, its economic and social interests were forced to compete and form alliances. No single group—not even the wealthy—was able to exercise continuing control of urban policy. Building on his account of this interplay among numerous elites, Hammack concludes with a new interpretation of the history of power in New York and other American cities between 1890 and 1950.

This book makes a major contribution to the study of community power, of urban and regional history, and of public policy. And by taking the meaning and distribution of power as his theme, Hammack is able to reintegrate economic, social, and political history in a rich and comprehensive work.

"Lucid, instructive, and discerning....The most commanding analysis of its subject that I know." —John M. Blum, professor of history, Yale University

"A powerful and persuasive treatment of a marvelous subject." —Nelson W. Polsby, professor of political science, University of California, Berkeley

DAVID C. HAMMACK is professor of history at Case Western Reserve University.

Winner of the 2004 Best Book Award from the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association

"This is a bold and immensely important book that focuses attention on one of the most critical issues of our time. Namely, can facing the truth about a nation's brutal, violent, and oppressive history lead to reconciliation among that nation's former and bitter enemies? In what is perhaps the most sophisticated and subtle analysis of the South African reconciliation process to be found anywhere in the literature, James Gibson explores a number of unanticipated complexities generated by this seemingly simple question, and, in the process, provides us with encouraging, if somewhat disheartening, insights. This book is simply a must read for anyone interested in understanding the reconciliation process in South Africa and its possible implications for the resolution of intergroup conflict in other parts of the world."
-JAMES SIDANIUS, professor of psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

"Overcoming Apartheid is a singular work, a test of the proposition that acknowledgement of evil on both sides of a conflict can bring warring parties together. It is absorbing in a way few works in social science are, in parts optimistic, in others ominous, but in all a model of pursuit of truth."
-PAUL M. SNIDERMAN, Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy, Stanford University

Perhaps no country in history has so directly and thoroughly confronted its past in an effort to shape its future as has South Africa. Working from the belief that understanding the past will help build a more peaceful and democratic future, South Africa has made a concerted, institutionalized effort to come to grips with its history of apartheid through its Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In Overcoming Apartheid, James L. Gibson provides the first systematic assessment of whether South Africa's truth and reconciliation process has been successful. Has the process allowed South Africa to let go of its painful past and move on? Or has it exacerbated racial tensions by revisiting painful human rights violations and granting amnesty to their perpetrators?

Overcoming Apartheid reports on the largest and most comprehensive study of post-apartheid attitudes in South Africa to date, involving a representative sample of all major racial, ethnic, and linguistic groups. Grounding his analysis of truth in theories of collective memory, Gibson discovers that the process has been most successful in creating a common understanding of the nature of apartheid. His analysis then demonstrates how this common understanding is helping to foster reconciliation, as defined by the acceptance of basic principles of human rights and political tolerance, rejection of racial prejudice, and acceptance of the institutions of a new political order. Gibson identifies key elements in the process—such as acknowledging shared responsibility for atrocities of the past—that are essential if reconciliation is to move forward. He concludes that without the truth and reconciliation process, the prospects for a reconciled, democratic South Africa would diminish considerably. Gibson also speculates about whether the South African experience provides any lessons for other countries around the globe trying to overcome their repressive pasts.

A groundbreaking work of social science research, Overcoming Apartheid is also a primer for utilizing innovative conceptual and methodological tools in analyzing truth processes throughout the world. It is sure to be a valuable resource for political scientists, social scientists, group relations theorists, and students of transitional justice and human rights.

JAMES L. GIBSON is Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government at Washington University, St. Louis.

"Analysts intersted in what the future holds for political representation of new immigrant groups and their children, as well as for the normative goal of political equality more generally, will find this anthology both informative and stimulating."
-Journal of American Ethnic History

"E Pluribus Unum? is a pathbreaking volume that brings together historians and social scientists to explore the dynamics of political incorporation in the twentieth century's two great immigration waves. From political machines and naturalization to education, transnational loyalties, and racial exclusion, the many excellent essays provide insights into the way immigration has changed-and continues to change-American civic culture and political life."
-NANCY FONER, State University of New York, Purchase

"Crafty Irish ward heelers strolling city sidewalks, while a colorful and engaging image, explains little of the complexities of how waves of newcomers have found their way to voting booths, city councils, and state legislatures in the United States. Gary Gerstle and John Mollenkopf's band of historians and social scientists bring state-of-the-art insight and methodologies to comprehending the political incorporation of immigrants as it happened and is still happening. Changes in America's civic culture, schools, and immigration patterns as well as a transnationalism that allows migrants to simultaneously participate in the politics of homeland and host country require the kind of interdisciplinary scholarly analysis that this volume offers. Just as the best anthologies have always done, this one is likely to inspire dissertations and monographs aplenty."
-ALAN KRAUT, American University, the Immigration and Ethnic History Society

"International migration is always a 'matter of state,' and no more so then when it confronts the national political community with the issue of where the boundaries of membership shall be drawn. Through politics, immigrant outsiders have repeatedly remade the American nation-just as those lucky enough to take membership for granted have circumscribed the options for the would-be Americans from abroad. For insights into this process, and historical comparisons that confound the usual distinctions between U.S. immigrations old and new, Gary Gerstle and John Mollenkopf's volume of original essays is the place to go."
-ROGER WALDINGER, professor and chair, department of sociology, UCLA

The political involvement of earlier waves of immigrants and their children was essential in shaping the American political climate in the first half of the twentieth century. Immigrant votes built industrial trade unions, fought for social protections and religious tolerance, and helped bring the Democratic Party to dominance in large cities throughout the country. In contrast, many scholars find that today's immigrants, whose numbers are fast approaching those of the last great wave, are politically apathetic and unlikely to assume a similar voice in their chosen country. E Pluribus Unum? delves into the wealth of research by historians of the Ellis Island era and by social scientists studying today's immigrants and poses a crucial question: What can the nation's past experience teach us about the political path modern immigrants and their children will take as Americans?

E Pluribus Unum? explores key issues about the incorporation of immigrants into American public life, examining the ways that institutional processes, civic ideals, and cultural identities have shaped the political aspirations of immigrants. The volume presents some surprising re-assessments of the past as it assesses what may happen in the near future. An examination of party bosses and the party machine concludes that they were less influential political mobilizers than is commonly believed. Thus their absence from today's political scene may not be decisive. Some contributors argue that the contemporary political system tends to exclude immigrants, while others remind us that past immigrants suffered similar exclusions, achieving political power only after long and difficult struggles. Will the strong home country ties of today's immigrants inhibit their political interest here? Chapters on this topic reveal that transnationalism has always been prominent in the immigrant experience, and that today's immigrants may be even freer to act as dual citizens. E Pluribus Unum? theorizes about the fate of America's civic ethos—has it devolved from an ideal of liberal individualism to a fractured multiculturalism, or have we always had a culture of racial and ethnic fragmentation? Research in this volume shows that today's immigrant schoolchildren are often less concerned with ideals of civic responsibility than with forging their own identity and finding their own niche within the American system of racial and ethnic distinction.

Incorporating the significant influx immigrants into American society is a central challenge for our civic and political institutions—one that cuts to the core of who we are as a people and as a nation. E Pluribus Unum? shows that while today's immigrants and their children are in some ways particularly vulnerable to political alienation, the process of assimilation was equally complex for earlier waves of immigrants. This past has much to teach us about the way immigration is again reshaping the nation.

GARY GERSTLE is professor of history at the University of Maryland.

JOHN MOLLENKOPF is professor of political science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

CONTRIBUTORS: Gary Gerstle, John Mollenkopf, T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Louis DeSipio, Philip Gleason, Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, Desmond King, Ewa Morawska, Laurie Olsen, Evelyn Savidge Sterne, David Tyack, and Reed Ueda.