Who We Are Now: The Changing Face of America in the 21st Century [Paperback]

Sam Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 9, 2004 | ISBN-10: 080507080X | ISBN-13: 978-0805070804 | Edition: First Edition

A revealing view of America and its citizens at the dawn of a new century, by the author of the New York Times Notable Book Who We Are

For more than two centuries, America has taken stock every decade, producing a statistical self-portrait of our population. In Who We Are Now, Sam Roberts identifies and illuminates the trends and social shifts changing the face of America today.

America is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. The nation's complexion changed significantly over the twentieth century, creating more varied and intermingled identities, and with the baby boomers nearing retirement and their children entering college, the graying of America has been balanced, precariously, by the youth culture. And in the wake of welfare reform in the 1990s, the fate of the working poor has become all the more tenuous. Roberts masterfully weaves stories of individuals from all corners of the country alongside the data from the latest U.S. census, creating a compelling guided tour of the places, personalities, and politics that will shape America as the new century stretches before us.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Expanding and updating Who We Are: a Portrait of America Based on the Latest U.S. Census (1994), New York Times editor Roberts interprets demographics from Census 2000. Since the results of the last census have already been widely interpreted and disseminated, there are no surprises. But Roberts does do a competent cull, thoughtfully pulling sociological trends out of raw data, although the amount of data he does present, aided by 34 b&w illustrations, is close to overwhelming. Some facts: more and more respondents have identified themselves as coming from a mixed heritage; immigration, Roberts finds, is in part responsible for a population surge and for the fact that Hispanics now outnumber blacks; and although economic conditions have improved, many black and Hispanic children are still living in poverty. Roberts comments on the social implications of a growing elderly population and the dramatic transformation of the so-called nuclear family of the past. Less than one in four households are now made up of married couples with children, as younger people are delaying or forgoing marriage. Roberts includes an inquiry into how the U.S. fits into the demographics of the global community and is careful to refrain from making either overly positive or negative predictions for the future.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Provided one can withstand the bombardment of statistics, Roberts' analysis of the 2000 census rewards the reader with factual descriptions of American society. His generalizations about its 281,421,906 members fall into categories that correspond to the questions the census asked about marital status, family size, age, race, income, housing, and educational level. Roberts extracts the trends from the data and finds that some confirm conventional wisdom (nonwhites are an increasing proportion of the populace) while others challenge it (two-thirds of our mobile society actually live in their states of birth). This work contains demographic nuggets relevant to almost any social issue that becomes a political issue, such as homelessness. Roberts shows, for example, that the numbers demonstrate that the mid-1990s overhaul of the welfare system succeeded in increasing employment among welfare recipients while also noting what critics say about the quality of the jobs they obtained. Muting any political view he may have, the author permits the demographics to speak pristinely and readers to interpret them as they will. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Times Books; First Edition edition (September 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080507080X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805070804
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,118,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Information overload!!!!, October 1, 2004

By 

Paul Tognetti "The real world is so much more... (Cranston, RI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Who We Are Now: The Changing Face of America in the 21st Century (Paperback)

Imagine the daunting task of taking the raw data from the 2000 U.S. census and trying to make sense of it all? "Who We Are Now" is author Sam Roberts heroic attempt to do just that. In fact, Roberts, a veteran New York Times journalist wrote just such a book a decade ago based on the 1990 census. I did not read that one but I must warn you that I found getting through the sequel to be a bit tedious at times. There are simply too many statistics for the average reader to process. I often became confused and as a result I lost interest in the points the author was attempting to convey.

Having said that, the reader is still likely to come away from this book with a better understanding of who we are as a people and of the emerging trends in the country. You'll learn how the racial and ethnic composition of the nation is undergoing dramatic changes, where our citizens are moving to and from and what the consequences might be of our aging population. But at the end of the day I think I would prefer to read about such issues in books primarily devoted to those topics. And while I commend Sam Roberts for his attempt, in my judgement "Who We Are Now" is far more appropriate as a research volume for scholars than a book one would read from cover to cover.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What We Are Becoming., March 24, 2005

By 

Betty Burks "Betty Burks" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who We Are Now: The Changing Face of America in the 21st Century (Hardcover)

This research is based on the 2000 census. It shows a very profound change from the 1990 census, after which this writer presented his version of WHAT WE ARE. It was a hard decade for most of us as the world continues to change and take us with it.

In 1950, only ten percent of the population of the United States was non-white. Today, one in four Americans are black, Hispanic, or Asian. No country is home to more foreigners than the U.S. We now have people here from Ukraine, India, even the Middle East.

In the 19th century, we invented the telegraph, telephones, and electric lights. Then came radio, t.v., airplanes, automobiles, and the atom bomb. Along, came immigrants in droves. After WWII, the Japanese were given entry as we rebuilt their country. For half a century, this country absorbed immigrants from every corner of Europe.

The United States was 40% of the world's population in 2000 in every way. India has four times the population of U.S. but fewer people age 80 or older. By 2011, the number of elderly will increase dramatically as the 'baby boomers' turn 65.

By 2025, the population is projected to grow by 23%. In 2040, if no catastrophe overtakes us, Americans may outnumber western Europeans. In 2050, the proportion of old people will have doubled. By 2100, nonwhites and Hispanics are projected to make up 60% of the U.S. population.

H. G. Wells wrote, "the race between education and catastrophe is far from over." How the 21st century is determined by numbers but also by the vagaries of human nature.

Sam Roberts wrote THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE ROSENBERG CASE, is host of a daily t.v. interview show in New York City, and has been reporter, journalist, and an editor of the New York Times since 1983. He includes a bibliography, multiple charts, and extensive index to show the factual material he uses.