Census and Identity : The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in National Censuses

David I. Kertzer (Editor), Dominique Arel (Editor)

ISBN 10: 0521808235 / ISBN 13: 9780521808231

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2001

About this Item

Cover slightly rubbed.

Seller Inventory # c14213

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Census and Identity : The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Language in National Censuses
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521808235
• ISBN 13: 9780521808231
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Social Sciences

About this title

Synopsis

This study examines the ways that states have attempted to pigeon-hole the people within their boundaries into racial, ethnic, and language categories. These attempts, whether through American efforts to divide the U.S. population into mutually exclusive racial categories, or through the Soviet system of inscribing nationality categories on internal passports, have important implications not only for people's own identities and life chances, but for national political and social processes as well. The book reviews the history of these categorizing efforts by the state, offers a theoretical context for examining them, and illustrates the case with studies from a range of countries.

About the Authors

David Kertzer is Professor of Social Science, and Professor of Anthropology and History, Brown University. He was National Book Award Finalist for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, and is the author of Politics and Symbols (1996), Sacrificed for Honor (1993), Ritual Politics and Power (1988), Comrades and Christians (1980), and several other books. Among his recent edited books are Anthropological Demography (with Tom Fricke, 1997) and Aging the Past (with Peter Laslett (1995).

Dominique Arel is Assistant Professor (Research), Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University. He has chapters in Multinational Democracies (Cambridge, 2001) and in other scholarly journals.