The American census : a social history / Margo J. Anderson.

Revised edition of the author's The American census, c1988.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The census and the new nation: apportionment, Congress, and the progress of the United States -- Sectional crisis and census reform in the 1850s -- Counting slaves and freedmen: war and reconstruction by the numbers -- The census and industrial America in the Gilded Age -- Building the federal statistical system in the early twentieth century -- The tribal twenties: national origins, malapportionment, and cheating by the numbers -- Counting the unemployed and the crisis of the Great Depression -- War, welfare, and the census: statistics for the American century -- Reapportionment, funds allocations, and the census -- Census undercount and the politics of counting, 1970-1980 -- The undercount controversies continue -- The census and the American community survey -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1: U.S. population and area, 1790-2010 -- Appendix 2: Growth and cost of the decennial census, 1790-2010 -- Appendix 3: Congressional apportionment, 1789-2010 -- Appendix 4: Chronology of the states of the Union.

This book is the first social history of the census from its origins to the present and has become the standard history of the population census in the United States. The second edition has been updated to trace census developments since 1980, including the undercount controversies, the arrival of the American Community Survey, and innovations of the digital age. Margo J. Anderson's scholarly text effectively bridges the fields of history and public policy, demonstrating how the census both reflects the country's extraordinary demographic character and constitutes an influential tool for policy making. Her book is essential reading for all those who use census data, historical or current, in their studies or work.-- Provided by Publisher.

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