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At every decade since 1790, Americans have painted a vivid self-portrait by numbers that reveals in stunning detail who we are as a nation. As the last decade of the twentieth century opened, the bicentennial census of 1990 captured a country radically transformed - a transformation with profound social, economic, and political consequences that we are only beginning to grasp.
In Who We Are, Sam Roberts, urban affairs columnist for The New York Times, has fashioned the raw figures into a dynamic picture of the American people and a preview of where we're going as the next century begins.
A compelling, expertly guided tour of the places and personalities behind the numbers, Who We Are offers a gripping view of how and where we live, our changing complexion, what we're worth, and how we're aging. The average American is a 32.7-year-old married white woman living in a mortgaged suburban three-bedroom home heated by natural gas. She's also a myth. Society and its basic building block, the family, have been dramatically redefined by delayed marriage, deferred childbirth, and divorce.
One in four children born in the 1980s is being reared by a single parent; six in ten mothers with young children are in the labor force; three in a hundred households conform to the idealized family made up of a working husband, his dutiful wife, and their two children.
Who We Are mines the 1990 census's rich lode of statistics to chart seismic changes in every aspect of American life. Immigration has tuned the United States into what's been hailed as the first universal nation where people are more important than place and where the burrito has become as ubiquitous as the bagel. As they age, baby boomers are fundamentally altering the demand for health care and other services.
Corrosive racism has propelled the percentage of poor blacks to forty times the figure for whites; one in every four black men in their twenties is in prison or on parole. Roberts translates numbers into an insightful analysis of contemporary issues, ranging from the growing burdens of the middle class to the burgeoning of the suburbs and to where America will stand in the global economy
- The next census, in 2000, will reveal an even more crowded and complicated world. Placing the nation's bicentennial census in valuable perspective, Roberts explores the forces reshaping American life and poses critical questions about our values, our economy, our country, and the kind of future our children will inherit.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Census, 21st, 1990, Population, Recensement (21e ; 1990), Demographie, Recensement (1990), Census, 1990Places
United StatesShowing 3 featured editions. View all 3 editions?
Edition | Availability |
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1
Who we are: a portrait of America based on the latest U.S. census
1995, Times Books, Three Rivers Press
in English
- Rev. and updated ed.
0812925262 9780812925265
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2
Who We Are:: A Portrait of America Based on the 1990 Census
March 1, 1994, Crown
Hardcover
in English
- 1st ed edition
0812921925 9780812921922
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WorldCat
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3
Who we are: a portrait of America based on the latest U.S. census
1993, Times Books
in English
- 1st ed.
0812921925 9780812921922
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- Created April 29, 2008
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August 6, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
April 14, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the edition. |
April 29, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |