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.
"A thorough, lively analysis. With wit--and a wary eye for the manipulative uses to which statistics are put in politics and the marketplace--[Roberts] illuminates the forces driving the nation's social-policy debates."
The New York Times
"The U.S. census is a precious American asset, and Sam Roberts has become its foremost expositor. With clarity, subtlety, and humor, he uses its 2000 findings to expand our understanding of the people we are and what the future holds for our nation. Who We Are Now shows that statistics need not be chilly columns of figures; in Roberts's hands, they tell vital -- and often surprising -- human sto
Andrew Hacker, author of Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal
"Sam Roberts has once again combined a mine of data, from the 2000 census, with his enormous knowledge of American history and contemporary life to produce a fascinating account of Americans at the opening of the third millennium. The text, maps, charts, tables are all invaluable for anyone concerned with who we are and how we are changing."
Nathan Glazer, Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
