A history of the American people

History

Thernstrom, Stephan

Americas

Harcourt, Brace. Jovanovich

Glimpses of the Harvard Past

This happy combination of literary essay and exceptionally well-written history, providing insights into a past still important in the twentieth century, will quickly take an honored place on the shelves of Harvardiana. 
 Bernard Bailyn writes on the origins of Harvard and the foundations of Harvard's persistent character, structure, and style of governance, and contributes another chapter on the unhappy ending to the administration of the beloved President Kirkland (x8xo-i8z8), who presided over but could not control a period of profound change. Oscar Handlin describes the shifting relationships and power struggles among faculty, administration, and students over the years ("Making Men of the Boys") and Harvard's evolution from an ingrown community of teachers and students into a large, complex institution with worldwide prestige. Donald Fleming has chapters on the presidency of Charles William Eliot ("the greatest man in the history of Harvard") and the colorful personalities of Harvard (not only "Copey" and Santayana and Charles Eliot Norton, but also "Old Sophy," who kept a pet chicken in his room in Holworthy). Stephan Thernstrom examines the growing diversity of the student body as to finances, geography, religion, and racial background from the eighteenth century to the 1980s. 
 The subjects are of continuing interest not only to members of the Harvard community, who will treasure this memento of Harvard's 350th anniversary, but also to historians of higher education and ordinary readers, who will enjoy the new information, original personalities, and thoughtful perspectives the book offers.

Bailyn, Bernard

HANDLIN, Oscar

Fleming, Donald

Harvard University Press

The Other Bostonians challenges many myths and assumptions about the development of America. Newspapers and other familiar sources record the lives of only the prominent five percent of the population. Beyond these privileged few lie the millions who are born, live, and die unnoted by the chroniclers of their era. Now, with the assistance of computers and a team of researchers, Stephan Thernstrom has gone to the available records of these people, to the raw and uninterpreted data in old city directories, fading marriage license applications, and abandoned local tax records. He has assembled and analyzed this neglected body of evidence to provide one of the most thorough series of observations ever made on the patterns of migration and social mobility in a changing American community. "Thernstrom has written a superb book. It is the best and most ambitious analysis of social mobility yet to appear and will undoubtedly serves as a model for future studies." -American Historical Review "The best piece of quantitative history yet published. It is destined to be a highly influential book." -New York Times Book Review "This is an important book-indispensably important-for students of American social mobility." -American Journal of Sociology

The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970 (Harvard Studies in Urban History, 15)

The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970

The Other Bostonians challenges many myths and assumptions about the development of America. Newspapers and other familiar sources record the lives of only the prominent five percent of the population. Beyond these privileged few lie the millions who are born, live, and die unnoted by the chroniclers of their era. Now, with the assistance of computers and a team of researchers, Stephan Thernstrom has gone to the available records of these people, to the raw and uninterpreted data in old city directories, fading marriage license applications, and abandoned local tax records. He has assembled and analyzed this neglected body of evidence to provide one of the most thorough series of observations ever made on the patterns of migration and social mobility in a changing American community. "Thernstrom has written a superb book. It is the best and most ambitious analysis of social mobility yet to appear and will undoubtedly serves as a model for future studies." -American Historical Review "The best piece of quantitative history yet published. It is destined to be a highly influential book." -New York Times Book Review "This is an important book-indispensably important-for students of American social mobility." -American Journal of Sociology

The Other Bostonians, Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970

Harvard Univ Pr

Embedded in the consciousness of Americans throughout much of the country’s history has been the American Dream: that every citizen, no matter how humble his beginnings, is free to climb to the top of the social and economic ladder. Poverty and Progress assesses the claims of the American Dream against the actual structure of economic and social opportunities in a typical nineteenth century industrial community―Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Here is local history. With the aid of newspapers, census reports, and local tax, school, and savings bank records Stephan Thernstrom constructs a detailed and vivid portrait of working class life in Newburyport from 1850 to 1880, the critical years in which this old New England town was transformed into a booming industrial city. To determine how many self-made men there really were in the community, he traces the career patterns of hundreds of obscure laborers and their sons over this thirty year period, exploring in depth the differing mobility patterns of native-born and Irish immigrant workmen. Out of this analysis emerges the conclusion that opportunities for occupational mobility were distinctly limited. Common laborers and their sons were rarely able to attain middle class status, although many rose from unskilled to semiskilled or skilled occupations.
But another kind of mobility was widespread. Men who remained in lowly laboring jobs were often strikingly successful in accumulating savings and purchasing homes and a plot of land. As a result, the working class was more easily integrated into the community; a new basis for social stability was produced which offset the disruptive influences that accompanied the first shock of urbanization and industrialization.
Since Newburyport underwent changes common to other American cities, Thernstrom argues, his findings help to illuminate the social history of nineteenth century America and provide a new point of departure for gauging mobility trends in our society today. Correlating the Newburyport evidence with comparable studies of twentieth century cities, he refutes the popular belief that it is now more difficult to rise from the bottom of the social ladder than it was in the idyllic past. The “blocked mobility” theory was proposed by Lloyd Warner in his famous “Yankee City” studies of Newburyport; Thernstrom provides a thorough critique of the “Yankee City” volumes and of the ahistorical style of social research which they embody.

Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (Joint Centre for Urban Study S)

Argues that the prevailing pessimism on the status of African-Americans and the state of race relations is not justified by the facts, which show that the lives of most African-Americans have improved over the past five decades, and advocates doing away with affirmative action and similar policies. Analyzes historical developments in race relations that climaxed in the 1960s, contending that substantial progress was made before the civil rights movement, and discusses recent statistics on poverty, education, crime, and jobs. For general readers. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible

Biographies & Memoirs

Thernstrom, Abigail

Community & Culture

Simon&Schuster

In a book destined to become a classic, Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom present important new information about the positive changes that have been achieved and the measurable improvement in the lives of the majority of African-Americans. Supporting their conclusions with statistics on education, earnings, and housing, they argue that the perception of serious racial divisions in this country is outdated -- and dangerous.

A concerned appraisal of the racial gap in education today cites educational inequalities as a central civil rights issue, highlighting inner-city schools that demonstrate models of educational excellence while suggesting ways that educational problems can be overcome.

No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thernstrom, Stephan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Thernstrom, Stephan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thernstrom, Stephan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A history of the American people

Glimpses of the Harvard Past

The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970 (Harvard Studies in Urban History, 15)

The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970

The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970

The Other Bostonians, Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970

Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (Joint Centre for Urban Study S)

America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible

America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible

No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning