United States

The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published annually by the United States Bureau of the Census, is the standard summary of statistics on the country’s social, political, and economic composition. Interpretations of demographic data include Edward G. Stockwell, Population and People (1968); and Richard M. Scammon and Ben J. Wattenberg, The Real Majority (1970). For an analysis of national values, a classic account is Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, 2 vol. (1944, reprinted 1975). Inquiries into the nature of American society include Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword (1996); and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000). Immigration is discussed in John Isbister, The Immigration Debate: Remaking America (1996); and Joel Millman, The Other Americans: How Immigrants Renew Our Country, Our Economy, and Our Values (1997). Oscar Handlin, The Uprooted, 2nd ed. enlarged (1973), covers the era of mass immigration, 1860–1920. Examinations of contemporary American minority groups include Stephan Thernstorm (ed.), Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1980); and Frank D. Bean and W. Parker Frisbie (eds.), The Demography of Racial and Ethnic Groups (1978). Ethnic patterns are treated in James Paul Allen and Eugene James Turner, We the People: An Atlas of America’s Ethnic Diversity (1988). Oscar Handlin

The economy

Anthony S. Campagna, U.S. National Economic Policy, 1917–1985 (1987), chronicles changes in U.S. economic policies through much of the 20th century. Aspects of the economy are treated in Howard F. Gregor, Industrialization of U.S. Agriculture (1982), an atlas emphasizing aspects of industrialized farming, mainly from U.S. census information; and Robert J. Newman, Growth in the American South (1984), on the shift of U.S. manufacturing to the Southern states in the 1960s and ’70s. Two good sources of data on the U.S. economy are the Economic Report of the President (published every year), and the Statistical Abstract of the United States. W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, Myths of Rich and Poor (1999), gives a century-long perspective on the U.S. economy.

Administration and social conditions

The United States Government Manual (annual) offers a broad overview of the federal structure; while the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report and National Journal (weekly) provide closer views of the public record of the federal legislature. Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to Congress, 3rd ed. (1982), details the development and organization of Congress. See also The Book of the States, published biennially by the Council of State Governments. Donald R. Whitnah (ed.), Government Agencies (1983), contains essays on the agencies’ purposes and histories, with bibliographies. Discussions of election politics include Fred I. Greenstein and Frank B. Feigert, The American Party System and the American People, 3rd ed. (1985); the series by Theodore H. White, begun with The Making of the President, 1960 (1961), which continued by covering subsequent presidential elections; and Jack P. Greene (ed.), Encyclopedia of American Political History, 3 vol. (1984). Alexander DeConde (ed.), Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 3 vol. (1978), also contains useful bibliographies. Neal R. Peirce and Jerry Hagstrom, The Book of America: Inside 50 States Today, rev. and updated ed. (1984), is an insightful look at persistent social differences among various regions of the country. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Cultural life