A Population History of the United States / Edition 1

by Herbert S. Klein

Overview

A Population History of the United States is the first full-scale one volume survey of the demographic history of this country. It starts with the arrival of humans in the Western Hemisphere and ends with the current century. The basic trends in the growth of the national population are analyzed over centuries, including the changing nature of births, deaths, and migration of this population and the various factors which influenced these basic trends. The origin and distribution of pre-European American Indians is outlined, and the free and servile nature of European and African immigration is explained. Regional patterns of marriage and fertility and disease and morality in the pre-1800 European and African population are examined and compared with contemporary European developments. The decline of fertility and the rising rates of mortality are surveyed in the 19th century along with the mobility of population across the continent and into the cities. The decline of disease and mortality in the 20th century is explained and the late 20th century changes in family structure and fertility detailed. The rise of suburbs and the creation of inner city ghettos form a vital part of recent trends as do the return of new waves of foreign immigrants in the face of declining native births. Herbert S. Klein is Gouverneur Morris Professor of History at Columbia University and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and has recently written A Concise History of Bolivia (Cambridge, 2002) and co-authored Slave and Economy in Sao Paolo, Brazil, 1750-1850 (Stanford, 2002). He is also the author of The Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1999) and Haciendas and Ayllus: Rural Society in the Bolivian Andes (Stanford, 1992).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521788106
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/22/2004
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

Herbert S. Klein is the Gouverneur Morris Emeritus Professor of History, Columbia University, New York and Research Fellow and Curator at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, California. He is the author of numerous books, including The Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1999) and A Concise History of Bolivia (Cambridge, 2003). He also co-authored, with Francisco Vidal Luna, Brazil Since 1980 (Cambridge, 2006) and Slavery in Brazil (Cambridge, 2009), and with Laird Bergad, Hispanics in the United States, 1980–2005 (Cambridge, 2010).

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Paleo-Indians, Europeans, and the settlement of America; 2. Colonization and settlement of North America; 3. The Early Republic to 1860; 4. The creation of an industrial and urban society, 1860–1914; 5. The evolution of a modern population, 1914–45; 6. Transitions: the baby boom and bust and the new new immigrants, 1945–70; 7. A modern industrial society, 1970–2010.

Editorial Reviews

'Clear, concise, and comprehensive, this book will prove invaluable as both an introduction to the topic for students and a reference for academic and policy researchers.' Michael B. Katz, University of Pennsylvania

'The United States is a vast, diverse, and complex nation that has always been difficult to define and dissect. But Herbert S. Klein has brought order out of chaos in crafting in one volume a readable, understandable, and fascinating demographic history of the American people. It is a grand achievement.' Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University

'This succinct but comprehensive survey of U.S. population history deftly and insightful integrates the wide-ranging scholarship of the last several decades.' Robert William Fogel, University of Chicago and Winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1993

From the Publisher