The Los Angeles riots in the Spring of 1992 were among the most violent and destructive events in twentieth-century urban America. This collection of original essays by leading urban experts offers the first comprehensive analysis of the unrest that took place after a jury acquitted the police officers who were accused of using excessive force in t

In the 1970s, Americans rediscovered rural areas and, in increasing numbers, took up residence there. Many people, it seems, want to be where earlier generations wanted to be from. With the repopulation of rural areas, the diversity and distinctiveness of an earlier rural America is fading. Broad outlines will remain, but many details will disappear. This book records and interprets that detail as it has been served by Calvin L. Beale, chief demographer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture since the late 1950s.

Beale has devoted his professional career--and also much of his spare time--to studying rural areas and their inhabitants. Since the 1950s, he has studied places that most urban Americans have not seen and do not know: the Mississippi Delta, the Ozark-Ouachita Uplands, Appalachia, and the Corn, Cotton, Tobacco, and Peanut Belts. His observations and interpretations offer an uncommon "taste" of this country and the directions of change that are underway.

Peter A. Morrison has assembled Beale's most insightful writings on the nation's subregions and on how rural people live their lives. The passages afford factual information enriched by the author's insights into the transformations of rural America. Chapters highlighting four aspects of rural commonality and diversity are captured in his writings: the regional settings, the towns and communities, the people, and the transformations underway in all three.

"For generations in our national life, progress was the preserve of cities," Beale wrote in 1981. "Inventions, standards of services, and social styles and trends lagged in their adoption in rural areas. The countryside was a time machine in which urbanites could see the living past, and feel nostalgic or superior, as the sight inclined them." Calvin L. Beale headed the Population Section of the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service in Washington, D.C., where he is now Senior Demographer. His research has focused on rural, regional, and ethnic trends and composition. He is author or coauthor of "The Revival of Population Growth in Nonmetropolitan America," "Rural Development in Perspective," and Economic Areas of the United States.

This is a collection of 20 case studies prepared by a group of demographers; professors of economics, sociology, population studies, business, and marketing; and research analysts interested in understanding a world of changing demographics. Because the study of demography is becoming increasingly important to a growing number of professionals and decision makers in business and government, these case studies were written to address how the science of demography is being applied to real-world problems. Written in nontechnical language and presented in a classroom-tested format, this easy to use guidebook covers applications of applied demography in government planning, long term corporate strategy, forecasting, human resource management, and marketing. The authors show how to tie financial, political, and legal analysis into a consideration of demographic data and trends.