New York City in the 1980s: A Social, Economic, and Political Atlas

History

Mollenkopf, John H.

Americas

Pearson College Div

The glamour of New York City politics competes in the American consciousness with the scourges of crime, crack and homelessness. The political structure of the city is undoubtedly very complicated, with an extremely diverse mix of ethnic and racial groups and correspondingly complex electoral alignments. This book looks at the motivation behind the election by the voters of NYC of their first African-American mayor, David Dinkins. While race may seem the obvious explanation, the authors show that it is far from the whole story. Dinkins' election was dependent on vast numbers of defections from traditional Democratic voting groups. While New York's blacks did vote overwhelmingly for Dinkins, he could not have won without support from white liberal, Latino and Jewish voters and even a significant fraction of white ethnic Catholics. "Changing New York City Politics" addresses issues central to the political agenda of the United States and of any country with a population of very mixed ethnic origin. This book should be of interest to postgraduates and researchers in American studies, voting behaviour and racial studies.

Changing New York City Politics

Politics & Social Sciences

Arian, Asher

Goldberg, Arthur S.

Rogowsky, E.

Politics & Government

Routledge

Behind the contentious politics of immigration lies the question of how well new immigrants are becoming part of American society. To address this question, Inheriting the City draws on the results of a ground-breaking study of young adults of immigrant parents in metropolitan New York to provide a comprehensive look at their social, economic, cultural, and political lives. 
 Inheriting the City examines five immigrant groups to disentangle the complicated question of how they are faring relative to native-born groups, and how achievement differs between and within these groups. While some experts worry that these young adults would not do as well as previous waves of immigrants due to lack of high-paying manufacturing jobs, poor public schools, and an entrenched racial divide, Inheriting the City finds that the second generation is rapidly moving into the mainstream—speaking English, working in jobs that resemble those held by native New Yorkers their age, and creatively combining their ethnic cultures and norms with American ones. Far from descending into an urban underclass, the children of immigrants are using immigrant advantages to avoid some of the obstacles that native minority groups cannot.

Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age

Waters, Mary C.

Kasinitz, Philip

Holdaway, Jennifer

Social Sciences

Harvard University Press

The United States is an immigrant nation―nowhere is the truth of this statement more evident than in its major cities. Immigrants and their children comprise nearly three-fifths of New York City's population and even more of Miami and Los Angeles. But the United States is also a nation with entrenched racial divisions that are being complicated by the arrival of newcomers. While immigrant parents may often fear that their children will "disappear" into American mainstream society, leaving behind their ethnic ties, many experts fear that they won't―evolving instead into a permanent unassimilated and underemployed underclass. Inheriting the City confronts these fears with evidence, reporting the results of a major study examining the social, cultural, political, and economic lives of today's second generation in metropolitan New York, and showing how they fare relative to their first-generation parents and native-stock counterparts. Focused on New York but providing lessons for metropolitan areas across the country, Inheriting the City is a comprehensive analysis of how mass immigration is transforming life in America's largest metropolitan area. The authors studied the young adult offspring of West Indian, Chinese, Dominican, South American, and Russian Jewish immigrants and compared them to blacks, whites, and Puerto Ricans with native-born parents. They find that today's second generation is generally faring better than their parents, with Chinese and Russian Jewish young adults achieving the greatest education and economic advancement, beyond their first-generation parents and even beyond their native-white peers. Every second-generation group is doing at least marginally―and, in many cases, significantly―better than natives of the same racial group across several domains of life. Economically, each second-generation group earns as much or more than its native-born comparison group, especially African Americans and Puerto Ricans, who experience the most persistent disadvantage. Inheriting the City shows the children of immigrants can often take advantage of policies and programs that were designed for native-born minorities in the wake of the civil rights era. Indeed, the ability to choose elements from both immigrant and native-born cultures has produced, the authors argue, a second-generation advantage that catalyzes both upward mobility and an evolution of mainstream American culture. Inheriting the City leads the chorus of recent research indicating that we need not fear an immigrant underclass. Although racial discrimination and economic exclusion persist to varying degrees across all the groups studied, this absorbing book shows that the new generation is also beginning to ease the intransigence of U.S. racial categories. Adapting elements from their parents' cultures as well as from their native-born peers, the children of immigrants are not only transforming the American city but also what it means to be American.

Russell Sage Foundation

Changing New York City Politics (Routledge Revivals)

Rogowsky, Edward T.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mollenkopf, John H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mollenkopf, John H.