Proving that any program designed to change our social behavior is doing what it set out to do is one of the most difficult problems faced by social science. Yet those responsible for such a program must attempt an evaluation of its results if they are to achieve the support they need. Edward A. Suchman, one of the world's foremost experts in measuring social behavior, presents the most comprehensive study of evaluation available to date.

In Evaluative Research he describes the techniques used to determine empirically the extent to which social goals are actually being achieved, to locate the barriers to the achievement of these goals, and to discover the unanticipated consequences of social actions.

The book is divided into three main sections, representing the conceptual, the methodological, and the administrative aspects of evaluation. It begins with a brief historical account and a general critique of the current status of evaluation studies. The introduction is followed by a conceptual analysis of the evaluative process, including a discussion of different levels of objectives. The methodological section includes an analysis of various research designs applicable to evaluative research. The place of evaluation in the administrative process is related to program planning, demonstration, and operation. Administrative resistance and barriers to evaluation are examined along with the problems in the utilization of the findings.

The book concludes with a brief exposition on the relationship of evaluative research to social experimentation stressing the potential contribution which public service and social action programs can make to our knowledge of administrative science and social change.

This book will have many uses. It will aid the evaluative research person in striking a balance between rigorous method and the situation in which he must function. For the operating practitioner, the book will explain what competent evaluation involves. Administrators will find the volume and invaluable aid.

An exploration of settlements throughout the United States, in particular non-residential neighborhood centers, covering a range of interests, including history, educational approaches, and connections to labor.

ROBERT A. WOODS, New York Charities Publication Committee

ALBERT J. KENNEDY, New York Charities Publication Committee

This book examines the work of early-twentieth century charity organizations, in particular those in urban environments.

Mary E. Richmond was the author of “Friendly Visiting Among the Poor,” general secretary of the Philadelphia Society for Organizing Charity

Report to the Chicago Woman’s Club, The Chicago Association of Collegiate Alumnae and the Woman’s City Club

Contributors: Sophonisba P. Breckinridge and Edith Abbott, directors of the Department of Social Investigation, the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, and Anne S. Davis, special investigator for the Chicago Woman’s Club, the Chicago Association of Collegiate Alumnae, and the Woman’s City Club

Winner of the 2020 Otis Dudley Duncan Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Social Demography

Honorable Mention for the 2020 Thomas and Znaniecki Award from the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association

“Using the best available data, state-of-the-art analytical strategies, and sophisticated theoretical framing, Immigration and the Remaking of Black America offers the definitive statement about the diverse experiences of black immigrants to the United States and how they compare to their native-born African American counterparts. Professor Hamilton has unquestionably raised the bar for future scholars who would seek to further advance our understanding of this important, but heretofore poorly understood, population.”
—STEWART E. TOLNAY, S. Frank Miyamoto Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Washington

“In the most comprehensive study to date of voluntary black immigration to the United States, Tod Hamilton conducts a tempered and temperate demolition on cherished conventional claims about race, national origin, immigration, and social outcomes. Hamilton’s systematic comparisons of the characteristics and experiences of recent black immigrants vis-à-vis their fellow nationals who remain in their home country, of internal black migrants to the north vis-à-vis those blacks who remained in the south, and of recent black immigrants vis-à-vis the native black American population writ large eradicate cultural-cum-behavioral explanations for ongoing racial inequality in the United States. Immigration and the Remaking of Black America is a masterful study.”
—WILLIAM A. DARITY JR., Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, Professor of African and African American Studies, and Professor of Economics, Duke University

“Immigration and the Remaking of Black America teaches us what it means to be black in America today. Its author, Tod G. Hamilton, provides a timely and accessible theoretical and empirical demographic benchmark describing America’s newest black immigrants. More importantly, Hamilton sets today’s black immigrant experience in comparison with native-born black Americans, who still feel the ancestral sting of forced migration from a much earlier and shameful period in U.S. history. America’s burgeoning immigrant and refugee populations from sub-Saharan Africa are too often overlooked but can tell us a great deal about contemporary race relations, race and class dynamics, and immigrant integration in a multiracial society. Immigration and the Remaking of Black America fills the current void.”
—DANIEL T. LICHTER, Ferris Family Professor, Cornell University

Over the last four decades, immigration from the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa to the U. S. has increased rapidly. In several states, African immigrants are now the primary drivers of growth in the black population. While social scientists and commentators have noted that these black immigrants’ social and economic outcomes often differ from those of their native-born counterparts, few studies have carefully analyzed the mechanisms that produce these disparities. In Immigration and the Remaking of Black America, sociologist Tod Hamilton shows how immigration is reshaping black America. He weaves together interdisciplinary scholarship with new data to enhance our understanding of the causes of socioeconomic stratification among both the native-born and newcomers.

Hamilton demonstrates that immigration from the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa is driven by selective migration, meaning that newcomers from these countries tend to have higher educational attainment and better health than those who stay behind. As a result, they arrive in the U.S. with some advantages over native-born blacks, and, in some cases, over whites. He also shows the importance of historical context: prior to the Civil Rights Movement, black immigrants’ socioeconomic outcomes resembled native-born blacks’ much more closely, regardless of their educational attainment in their country of origin. Today, however, certain groups of black immigrants have better outcomes than native-born black Americans—such as lower unemployment rates and higher rates of homeownership—in part because they immigrated at a time of expanding opportunities for minorities and women in general. Hamilton further finds that rates of marriage and labor force participation among native-born blacks that move away from their birth states resemble those of many black immigrants, suggesting that some disparities within the black population stem from processes associated with migration, rather than from
nativity alone.

Hamilton argues that failing to account for this diversity among the black population can lead to incorrect estimates of the social progress made by black Americans and the persistence of racism and discrimination. He calls for future research on racial inequality to disaggregate different black populations. By richly detailing the changing nature of black America, Immigration and the Remaking of Black America helps scholars and policymakers to better understand the complexity of racial disparities in the twenty-first century.

TOD G. HAMILTON is assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University.

“The prevailing view holds that union power and unreasonable demands by workers are responsible for the decline of the U.S. auto industry. In this compellingly argued study, Murray and Schwartz challenge that narrative. The problem, Wrecked lucidly argues, is not workers’ actual power. The root of the problem is that U.S. manufacturers are totally unwilling to form a social contract with workers and their unions, choosing total company control despite the fact that means increased costs and decreased flexibility. Anyone interested in reviving U.S. manufacturing needs to read this book.”
—DAN CLAWSON, professor of sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

“It’s almost a truism to lay the decline of the American auto industry at the feet of the trade union movement—for demanding too much, not working hard enough, and in so doing, reducing the competitiveness of the Big Three automakers. But in this brilliant book, Josh Murray and Michael Schwartz place the blame back where it belongs—on the managers and owners and their investment decisions. Whereas Japanese competitor firms based their production model on increasing labor productivity, the Big Three turned increasingly to a low-wage, low-cost model—which quickly lost ground to rival producers. The result has been nothing short of catastrophic for millions of workers in the heartland of American manufacturing. Wrecked sets the record straight. It will take its place as a classic in economic sociology.”
—VIVEK CHIBBER, professor of sociology, New York University

At its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, automobile manufacturing was the largest, most profitable industry in the United States and residents of industry hubs like Detroit and Flint, Michigan had some of the highest incomes in the country. Over the last half-century, the industry has declined, and American automakers now struggle to stay profitable. How did the most prosperous industry in the richest country in the world crash and burn? In Wrecked, sociologists Joshua Murray and Michael Schwartz offer an unprecedented historical sociological analysis of the downfall of the auto industry. Through an in-depth examination of labor relations and the production processes of automakers in the U.S. and Japan both before and after World War II, they demonstrate that the decline of the American manufacturers was the unintended consequence of their attempts to weaken the bargaining power of their unions.

Today Japanese and many European automakers produce higher quality cars at lower cost than their American counterparts thanks to a flexible form of production characterized by long-term sole suppliers, assembly and supply plants located near each other, and just-in-time delivery of raw materials. While this style of production was, in fact, pioneered in the U.S. prior to World War II, in the years after the war, American automakers deliberately dismantled this system. As Murray and Schwartz show, flexible production accelerated innovation but also facilitated workers’ efforts to unionize plants and carry out work stoppages. To reduce the efficacy of strikes and combat the labor militancy that flourished between the Depression and the postwar period, the industry dispersed production across the nation, began maintaining large stockpiles of inventory, and eliminated single sourcing. While this restructuring of production did ultimately reduce workers’ leverage, it also decreased production efficiency and innovation. The U.S. auto industry has struggled ever since to compete with foreign automakers, and formerly thriving motor cities have suffered the consequences of mass deindustrialization.

Murray and Schwartz argue that new business models that reinstate flexible production and prioritize innovation rather than cheap labor could stem the outsourcing of jobs and help revive the auto industry. By clarifying the historical relationships between production processes, organized labor, and industrial innovation, Wrecked provides new insights into the inner workings and decline of the U.S. auto industry.

JOSHUA MURRAY is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University.

MICHAEL SCHWARTZ is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Sociology at Stony Brook University.

This 1910 pamphlet presents a list of various social movement agencies or organizations with a brief statement of their purposes and plans, with the aim of promoting acquaintance and working together. Prepared by the Charity Organization Deaprtment of the Russell Sage Foundation.

A 1910 pamphlet published by the Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation explaining the work and aims of associated charities and their role in society.

A 1946 report suggesting how statistical research can be applied to better understand professional education and the structure and function of professional associations.

ESTHER LUCILE BROWN was director of the Department of Studies in the Professions at the Russell Sage Foundation.