Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout: Century of Difference. How America Changed in the Last One Hundred Years

Abstract

Century of Difference is a quantitative social history of the 20th-century United States. Relying on century-long census data (as compiled in the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series) and surveys (including Gallup polls from 1935 to 2000 and the General Social Survey from 1972 to 2000), it presents in eight main chapters long-term descriptive statistics on a wide range of topics: nativity, residence patterns, family, education, work, living standards, religion and culture. Its main focus is descriptive rather than explanatory, and on most topics it provides the evolution of both central tendencies (means or medians) and the dispersion of distributions (typically the eighth and second deciles, computed as D8−D2 or D8/D2). Thus, Fischer and Hout describe not only who the fictional ‘average’ American became, but also to what extent Americans converged or diverged over the century. This is clearly one of the greatest strengths of Century of Difference. Let us highlight some of the key findings of this very informative book, which one can only recommend to any social scientist or citizen interested in American social history.