Brief Description
This is a fully-updated version of the first full-scale, one-volume survey of the demographic history of the United States from preconquest to the present day.
Learn More about the Book
This is a fully-updated version of the first full-scale, one-volume survey of the demographic history of the United States. From the arrival of humans in the Western Hemisphere to the current century, Klein analyzes the basic demographic trends in the growth of the preconquest, colonial, and national populations. He surveys the origin and distribution of the Native Americans, the postconquest free and servile European and African colonial populations, and the variation in regional patterns of fertility and mortality until 1800. He then explores trends in births, deaths, and international and internal migrations during the 19th century, and compares them with contemporary European developments. The profound impact of historic declines in disease and mortality rates on the structure of the late-20th-century population is explained. The unusual patterns of recent urbanization and the rise of suburbia in the late 20th century are examined along with the renewed impact of new massive international migrations on North American society. Finally the late-20th-century changes in family structure, fertility, and mortality are evaluated for their influence on the evolution of the national population for the 21st century and compared with trends in other postdemographic-transition advanced industrial societies in Europe and Asia. This updated edition incorporates recent research, including data from the 2010 Census.
About the Author
Herbert S. Klein is the Gouverneur Morris Emeritus Professor of History, Columbia University, New York and Research Fellow and Curator at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, California. He is the author of numerous books, including The Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1999) and A Concise History of Bolivia (Cambridge, 2003). He also co-authored, with Francisco Vidal Luna, Brazil Since 1980 (Cambridge, 2006) and Slavery in Brazil (Cambridge, 2009), and with Laird Bergad, Hispanics in the United States, 1980 2005 (Cambridge, 2010).
Review Quotes
1. 'Clear, concise, and comprehensive, this book will prove invaluable as both an introduction to the topic for students and a reference for academic and policy researchers.' Michael B. Katz, University of Pennsylvania
2. 'The United States is a vast, diverse, and complex nation that has always been difficult to define and dissect. But Herbert S. Klein has brought order out of chaos in crafting in one volume a readable, understandable, and fascinating demographic history of the American people. It is a grand achievement.' Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University
3. 'This succinct but comprehensive survey of U.S. population history deftly and insightful integrates the wide-ranging scholarship of the last several decades.' Robert William Fogel, University of Chicago and Winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1993
