Inheriting the City or Robert F Kennedy

Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age

Author: Philip Kasinitz

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.

What People Are Saying

Gish Jen
What a timely and surprising book! The second generation lens brings into focus so many aspects of American life, from the shifting color line to the effects of social policy, the plight of the native born, and the contribution of immigration. Original, relevant, and nuanced, this is a must-read for anyone interested in America today and tomorrow… A wonderful and worthwhile book. --(Gish Jen, author of The Love Wife)

Nathan Glazer
This major study of the children of the great wave of immigration to New York City that has been sustained since the 1960's tells us as much about the fate of the second generation--in education, in occupation and income, in acculturation--as we can presently know. --(Nathan Glazer, co-author of Beyond the Melting Pot: The Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City)

Henry Cisneros
How America absorbs immigrants is among the most important yet least understood dimensions of our national experience. The authors offer a nuanced analysis of the sometimes counter-intuitive processes by which this happens. The result provides resonant insights that will shape policies, improve services, and most importantly teach us how and why immigration works. --(Henry Cisneros, Chairman, CityView, and former Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development)

Richard Alba
Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age is an eagerly-anticipated volume that will set the standard, and become the point of comparison, for future studies of the children of immigrants and second-generation incorporation. --(Richard Alba, State University of New York at Albany)

Robert D. Putnam
As recent headlines have made clear, the challenge of massive immigration is a defining issue for the twenty-first century. Debate on this volatile and controversial issue will be more enlightened if we get the facts straight. This powerfully documented book is a major contribution toward that end. The authors lay out the complicated, sometimes unexpected, but fundamentally encouraging facts about how the children of today's immigrants are assimilating into American life. If America's leaders can read only one book on this topic, this should be it. --(Robert D. Putnam, author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community)

Rubйn G. Rumbaut
Inheriting the City is chock-full of compelling stories of the generation now coming of age in New York. Explaining the divergent fates of young adults of Chinese, Dominican, Russian Jewish, West Indian, and South American origins--compared with their native white, black, and Puerto Rican counterparts--this brilliant study is essential for anyone hoping to grasp the manifold legacies of today's new immigration. --(Rubйn G. Rumbaut, co-author of Immigrant America: A Portrait and Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation)

Aristide R. Zolberg
The authors bring us no simplistic message. The 'melting pot' (if it ever existed) is gone forever. Diversity will persist. But, contrary to the rants of high- and low-brow prophets of doom, it is manageable. Indeed, the diversity resulting from immigration will continue to revitalize New York City and thereby the country as a whole. --(Aristide R. Zolberg, author of A Nation By Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America)

Books about: Eurabia or The Agenda

Robert F. Kennedy: And the Death of American Idealism

Author: Joseph A Palermo

At the forefront of the social movements and political crises that gripped America in the 1950s and 1960s, Robert F. Kennedy saw, advised and led the United States through some of the most epochal events in the 20^th century. This biography chronicles Kennedy’s life from his time as a boy growing up amidst the turmoil of the Great Depression and World War II to his rise as a central figure in the national debate on communism, poverty, civil rights, and the war in Vietnam.

Table of Contents:

Editor's Preface     ix
Acknowledgments     xi
Introduction     1
Coming of Age     5
Launching a Public Life     16
Finding His Way in the 1950s     30
His Brother's Keeper     43
Attorney General     63
Tragedy and Rebirth     83
Senator Kennedy, the Cautious Critic     103
Coming Out Against the Vietnam War     115
Presidential Candidate     124
From Victory to Tragedy     137
Conclusion     154
Study and Discussion Questions     159
A Note on the Sources     166
Index     173