Prophetic City: Houston on the Cusp of a Changing America

by Stephen L. Klineberg

Overview

Sociologist Stephen Klineberg presents “a trailblazing study” (Kirkus Reviews) that shows how the city of Houston has emerged as a microcosm for America’s future—based on a meticulously researched, thirty-eight-year study of its changing economic, demographic, and cultural landscapes.

Houston, Texas, long thought of as a traditionally blue-collar black/white Southern city, has transformed into one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse metro areas in the nation, surpassing even New York by some measures.

With a diversifying economy and large numbers of both highly skilled technical jobs in engineering and medicine and low-skilled minimum-wage jobs in construction, restaurant work, and personal services, Houston has become a magnet for the new divergent streams of immigration that are transforming America in the 21st century. And thanks to an annual systematic survey conducted over the past thirty-eight years, the ongoing changes in attitudes, beliefs, and life experiences have been measured and studied, creating a compelling data-driven map of the challenges and opportunities that are facing Houston and the rest of the country.

In Prophetic City, we’ll meet some of the new Americans, including a family who moved to Houston from Mexico in the early 1980s and is still trying to find work that pays more than poverty wages. There’s a young man born to highly educated Indian parents in an affluent Houston suburb who grows up to become a doctor in the world’s largest medical complex, as well as a white man who struggles with being prematurely pushed out of the workforce when his company downsizes.

“Eye-opening and accessible” (Publishers Weekly), this timely and groundbreaking book tracks the progress of an American city like never before. Houston is at the center of the rapid changes that have redefined the nature of American society itself in the new century, and is where, for better or worse, we can see the American future emerging.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501177927
Publisher:	Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	06/02/2020
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	970,630
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Stephen Klineberg, a graduate of Haverford College, with an MA from the University of Paris and a PhD from Harvard, is the founding director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, a multi-disciplinary “think-and-do tank” housed on the Rice University campus in central Houston, working to advance understanding of the most important issues facing Houston and other leading urban centers. Klineberg joined Rice University’s Sociology Department in 1972, and in 1982 he and his students initiated the annual Houston Area Survey, now in its 38th year of tracking the remarkable changes in the demographic patterns, economic outlooks, experiences, attitudes, and beliefs of Harris County residents.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Public Perceptions in a Rapidly Changing World

1 Getting to Houston 3

2 The Quintessential American City: Houston, 1836-1982 9

3 Launching the Systematic Study of a City in Transition 33

Confronting the New Economy

4 When All the Good Fortune Suddenly Ended 55

5 The Growing Opportunity Gap 79

6 The Moral Core of a Paradoxical City 99

The Diversity Revolution

7 The Black/White Divide 125

8 The Demographic Transformations 149

9 The New Face of Houston 169

Coming to Grips with the New Realities

10 Generational Divides in a Time of Transition 203

11 The New Importance of Quality of Place 227

12 Pathways to Success or Failure 255

13 Where Will Houston Go from Here? 279

Acknowledgments 287

Notes 291

Bibliography 299

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

04/06/2020

Rice University sociologist Klineberg debuts with a lucid, data-driven look at Houston, Tex., based on original research tracking the demographics, economic prospects, cultural attitudes, and politics of city residents over the past 38 years. Initiated in 1982, when Houston’s booming oil economy was drawing an influx of people as the rest of America suffered through a recession, Klineberg’s annual survey revealed a mix of liberal and conservative views: the majority of respondents supported gay rights, limited restrictions on abortion access, and environmental protections, but were also “more committed to the can-do work ethic” than the rest of the country. Analyzing survey results through the decades, Klineberg highlights the region’s monumental growth and its economic diversification after the oil boom collapsed, as well as the lack of upward mobility for poorer residents, most of whom are black or Latino. He also attributes the city’s robust nonprofit sector to inadequate public funding for schools and municipal services, as well as the religious beliefs and moral values of area residents. Interspersed with interviews of dozens of Houstonians, Klineberg’s meticulous research makes a strong case that Houston, with its growing inequalities, demographic shift to a nonwhite majority, and rising social and environmental consciousness, is at the forefront of America’s future. This eye-opening and accessible study deserves a wide readership. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Essential . . . A long overdue urban biography . . . Engaging and accessible.” —The Houston Chronicle

"A trailblazing study . . . Klineberg supports his case with a wealth of survey research, interviews with experts, and user-friendly graphs, all of which make this book invaluable for anyone seeking a deep understanding of an underappreciated city. A unique blend of analysis and research that is likely to become a classic work of scholarship on Houston." —Kirkus (starred review)

“A fascinating portrait of Houston . . . A must-read, highly recommended sociological perspective of America’s future.” —Library Journal (starred review)

"A detailed, accessible portrait of the changing face of Houston." —New Yorker

“[A] layered, nuanced history of this ever-evolving city.” —Texas Observer

"Klineberg’s meticulous research makes a strong case that Houston, with its growing inequalities, demographic shift to a nonwhite majority, and rising social and environmental consciousness, is at the forefront of America’s future. This eye-opening and accessible study deserves a wide readership." —Publishers Weekly

"An excellent new book on Houston . . . Particularly well-timed to our current moment . . . What Klineberg does beautifully in this book is to show that the challenges that Houston is grappling with today will be the challenges that the rest of us will be facing tomorrow." —Inside Higher Ed

“It’s a relief to read a book where Houston isn’t just the backdrop—it’s the story. . . . Critical reading for anyone interested in the Bayou City.” —Texas Monthly

From the Publisher

★ 05/01/2020

Sociologist Klineberg (founding director, Kinder Inst. for Urban Research, Rice Univ.) gives a fascinating portrait of Houston in this debut. He begins with the misconceptions of Houston—an ugly, boring city that is too big for its own good. Klineberg offers a different message about the city as a purveyor of America's future, using a four-decade study to analyze how the demographics have shifted over the years, along with the varied opportunities and challenges that have occurred as a result. According to Klineberg, the city's large wealth gap is one of the significant threats to society, as it determines who lives in an environment that is more like to succeed, or who is more likely to experience hardship. This disparity is evident from the gaps between West Houston and East Houston. Education levels are exasperated by this wealth gap, which also leads to perception of governmental benefits. The author believes that diversity is Houston's biggest asset because it offers new perspectives and allows the city a chance to become an inclusive community and metropolitan area. In his words, these are lessons that the rest of the country can learn from. VERDICT A must-read, highly recommended sociological perspective of America's future.—Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

Library Journal

Narrator Danny Campbell puts energy into telling listeners about Houston's rowdy roots and keeps that energy throughout. His voice puts emphasis on the highs and lows as the evolution of the city is revealed, his tone ranging from boosterish to harshly critical. Author Klineberg and his Rice University students worked as part of a team that regularly polled Houston residents about their perspectives. They found a city with shifting attitudes as it became more diverse. They heard more willingness to fund education and to accept immigrants, for example. Klineberg makes the argument that "Houston is America on demographic fast-forward," its changes and needs showing the future of the United States. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

Narrator Danny Campbell puts energy into telling listeners about Houston's rowdy roots and keeps that energy throughout. His voice puts emphasis on the highs and lows as the evolution of the city is revealed, his tone ranging from boosterish to harshly critical. Author Klineberg and his Rice University students worked as part of a team that regularly polled Houston residents about their perspectives. They found a city with shifting attitudes as it became more diverse. They heard more willingness to fund education and to accept immigrants, for example. Klineberg makes the argument that "Houston is America on demographic fast-forward," its changes and needs showing the future of the United States. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

★ 2020-04-05
A veteran sociologist maps nearly four decades of changes in an urban “bellwether of change.”

“Houston is America on demographic fast-forward,” Klineberg argues in a trailblazing study that draws on 38 years of annual surveys of residents’ views by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, of which the author is the founding director. His strongest evidence includes the “entropy index,” or “how close a given population comes to having equal fourths of Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and Anglos.” As the author notes, “by that measure, the Houston region is virtually tied with the New York metro for the diversity crown.” Yet as the city has predicted and reflected the American shift toward a more multiethnic society, it embodies the nation’s paradoxes. An anti-government, pro-business city, Houston elected the first openly lesbian mayor of a major American city, Annise Parker, in 2009, but voted against guaranteeing equal rights for the LGBTQ community in 2015. The city remains “profoundly segregated,” marked by growing income and educational inequalities. Underlying such realities are region-specific variations on national concerns such as crime, pollution, immigration, traffic congestion, and climate and economic uncertainties. Built on a swampy, bayou-laced, Gulf Coast floodplain, the city is vulnerable to devastating storms like Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and it has an industrial base in petrochemicals, raising “the question of how much longer oil and gas can sustain the Houston economy” as people turn to alternate energy sources. Although perhaps too optimistic in his conclusion that Houstonians can help to build “a truly successful universal city and nation, the first of its kind in human history,” Klineberg supports his case with a wealth of survey research, interviews with experts, and user-friendly graphs, all of which make this book invaluable for anyone seeking a deep understanding of an underappreciated city.

A unique blend of analysis and research that is likely to become a classic work of scholarship on Houston.

Kirkus Reviews