In every generation, Americans have worried about the solidarity of the nation. Since the days of the Mayflower, those already settled here have wondered how newcomers with different cultures, values, and (frequently) skin color would influence America. Would the new groups create polarization and disharmony? Thus far, the United States has a remarkable track record of incorporating new people into American society, but acceptance and assimilation have never meant equality. In Century of Difference, Claude Fischer and Michael Hout provide a compelling—and often surprising—new take on the divisions and commonalities among the American public over the tumultuous course of the twentieth century. Using a hundred years worth of census and opinion poll data, Century of Difference shows how the social, cultural, and economic fault lines in American life shifted in the last century. It demonstrates how distinctions that once loomed large later dissipated, only to be replaced by new ones. Fischer and Hout find that differences among groups by education, age, and income expanded, while those by gender, region, national origin, and, even in some ways, race narrowed. As the twentieth century opened, a person's national origin was of paramount importance, with hostilities running high against Africans, Chinese, and southern and eastern Europeans. Today, diverse ancestries are celebrated with parades. More important than ancestry for today's Americans is their level of schooling. Americans with advanced degrees are increasingly putting distance between themselves and the rest of society—in both a literal and a figurative sense. Differences in educational attainment are tied to expanding inequalities in earnings, job quality, and neighborhoods. Still, there is much that ties all Americans together. Century of Difference knocks down myths about a growing culture war. Using seventy years of survey data, Fischer and Hout show that Americans did not become more fragmented over values in the late-twentieth century, but rather were united over shared ideals of self-reliance, family, and even religion. As public debate has flared up over such matters as immigration restrictions, the role of government in redistributing resources to the poor, and the role of religion in public life, it is important to take stock of the divisions and linkages that have typified the U.S. population over time. Century of Difference lucidly profiles the evolution of American social and cultural differences over the last century, examining the shifting importance of education, marital status, race, ancestry, gender, and other factors on the lives of Americans past and present. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation Census Series

Focusing on the precursors and contexts of ethnographic film, this text depicts the dynamic visual culture of the period as it collided with the emerging discipline of anthropology and the new technology of motion pictures.

The book shows how the tribute-paying population in Peru and New Spain negotiated their categorization throughout the colonial period. It explains the fiscal legislation and its application from above as well as how it was shaped from below.

Suman Seth reveals how histories of medicine, empire, race and slavery intertwined in the eighteenth-century British Empire.

Intercultural theater is a prominent phenomena of twentieth-century international theater. This books views intercultural theatre as a process of displacement and re-placement of various cultural and theatrical forces, a process which the author describes as 'the poetics of displacement'.

This volume is the first to aim at summarizing all of the scientific literature published so far regarding male-female differences and similarities, not only in behavior, but also in basic biology, physiology, health, perceptions, emotions, and attitudes. Results from over 18,000 studies have been condensed into more than 1,900 tables, with each table pertaining to a specific possible sex difference. Even research pertaining to how men and women are perceived (stereotyped) as being different is covered. Throughout this book's eleven years in preparation, no exclusions were made in terms of subject areas, cultures, time periods, or even species. The book is accompanied by downloadable resources containing all 18,000+ references cited in the book. Sex Differences is a monumental resource for any researcher, student, or professional who requires an assessment of the weight of evidence that currently exists regarding any sex difference of interest. It is also suitable as a text in graduate courses pertaining to gender or human sexuality.

Mascia-Lees combines core components of these perspectives with insightful analyses and ethnographic examples to illusrate kow global events and transformations have molded and continue to skape gender identities, behaviors, and expectations and produce and sustain worldwide inequalities. This exemplary treatment provides a solid background to understand complex issues and to think critically about remedying uneven degrees of privilege and experiences of oppression both within and across nations. --Book Jacket.