Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America - Hardcover

Frey, William H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815723989 ISBN 13: 9780815723981

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 2014

Synopsis

At its optimistic best, America has embraced its identity as the world's melting pot. Today it is on the cusp of becoming a country with no racial majority, and new minorities are poised to exert a profound impact on U.S. society, economy, and politics. The concept of a "minority white" may instill fear among some Americans, but William H. Frey, the man behind the demographic research, points out that demography is destiny, and the fear of a more racially diverse nation will almost certainly dissipate over time.

Through a compelling narrative and eye-catching charts and maps, eminent demographer Frey interprets and expounds on the dramatic growth of minority populations in the United States. He finds that without these expanding groups, America could face a bleak future: this new generation of young minorities, who are having children at a faster rate than whites, is infusing our aging labor force with vitality and innovation. In contrast with the labor force-age population of Japan, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, the U.S. labor force-age population is set to grow 5 percent by 2030.

Diversity Explosion shares the good news about diversity in the coming decades, and the more globalized, multiracial country that the U.S. is becoming.

Contents

A Pivotal Period for Race in America

Old versus Young: Cultural Generation Gaps

America's New Racial Map

Hispanics Fan Out: Who Goes Where?

Asians in America: The Newest Minority Surge

The Great Migration of Blacks―In Reverse

White Population Shifts―A Zero-Sum

Melting Pot Cities and Suburbs

Neighborhood Segregation: Toward a New Racial Paradigm

Multiracial Marriages and Multiracial America

Race and Politics: Expanding the Battleground

America on the Cusp

About this title

About the Author

William H. Frey is a senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy program at the Brookings Institution and Research Professor in Population Studies at the University of Michigan. An internationally regarded demographer, his research has been written about in The Economist, New Yorker, and New York Times Magazine. Known for his ability to communicate demographic trends, he is a frequent commentator on broadcast media.

Review

"Bill Frey is widely acknowledged as America's leading demographer. In Diversity Explosion he extrapolates from current trends and paints a picture of how America will change demographically over the next 40 years."―Michael Barone, Enterprise Institute, Washington Examiner, and co-author, The Almanac of American Politics

"Bill Frey has mapped the contours of the emerging Next America more powerfully and presciently than anyone else. With Diversity Explosion, he gives us nothing less than a field guide to the American future. Frey has looked deep into the data and emerged with a book that is not only comprehensive and compelling but also ultimately hopeful in his faith that Americans will come together to seize the enormous opportunities generated by our kaleidoscopic demographic change."―Ronald Brownstein, editorial director, Atlantic Media and author of The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America

"William Frey is a numbers guy. Diversity Explosion is a smart, but not daunting exposition of the demographic revolution already under way. Frey breaks down the intriguing ways we'll watch America change: at work, at school, in the voting booth and in the culture at large. He shows us the next America and then tells us all the reasons he's concluded we can handle it."―Ray Suarez, Al Jazeera America's Inside Story, and author Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation

""What happened to the country I grew up in?" As a journalist I hear that question all over America, especially from older white people. Blacks and all but the most recent immigrants say it too. Let Bill Frey expertly explain the change and why it is good for everyone. A great read!"―Juan Williams, Fox News political analyst, Hill columnist and author of Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years

"In a definitive guide to America's demographic transformation, Frey gives us the facts and figures needed to understand how we got to where we are as a people and the even greater changes still ahead. Some books speculate about the future, this one calculates certainties."―Roberto Suro, professor of journalism and public policy at the University of Southern California

William Frey of the Brookings Institution explores the future in his newly published book, "Diversity Explosion." He is one of the nation's most astute demographers and has long been a reliable guide to the population shifts remaking America and to the longer-term cultural and political implications of those changes.

Few people understand the impact of the sweeping racial and ethnic changes in the United States more than William Frey. Frey, a senior fellow and demographer at the Metropolitan Policy Institute of the Brookings Institution, is out with a new book: "The Diversity Explosion." He writes in the book of the growing "cultural divide" between older, white people and younger, more racially and ethnically diverse Americans.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0815723989
• ISBN 13: 9780815723981
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224