Diversity in America

Fully updated and expanded, the fifth edition of Diversity in America offers a comparative, sociohistorical analysis of diversity in the United States. Drawing from the latest data and research and incorporating recent developments such as the Black Lives Matter movement, Parrillo gives a detailed and multifaceted portrait of intergroup relations. Parrillo takes a chronological approach and uses intergenerational comparisons to highlight demographic shifts and changing perceptions of diversity within different periods of American history. The tensions between the processes of assimilation and pluralism are explored throughout with reference to debates surrounding immigration, the perceived threat of multiculturalism, and the fear of society losing its ＂American＂ identity. The original concept of the ’Dillingham Flaw’ is deployed to explain false perceptions of immigrants. Further updates to the fifth edition include analytical commentary on the controversies surrounding Critical Race Theory and Great Replacement Theory; Affirmative Action, the rise of White supremacist groups; the political divide over asylum seekers, refugees, and undocumented immigrants; and changing racial and religious demographics in an evolving multi-racial America. The book thus sheds light on the socially constructed myths about America’s past, misunderstandings about its present, and anxieties about its future. This accessible and engagingly written book will be of interest to students, academics, and general readers with an interest in diversity, race, ethnicity and migration in the United States.

Vincent N. Parrillo is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at William Paterson University, USA. An internationally recognized expert of immigration and Fulbright scholar, he has been Scholar-in-Residence at universities in Belgium, the Czech Republic and Italy, and has given keynote lectures at several international conferences. A past vice president of the Eastern Sociological Society, he was its Robin Williams Distinguished Lecturer in 2006. He is author of Strangers to These Shores: Race and Ethnic Relations in the United States (13th edition, 2024), Defenders of Freedom (2015), and Guardians of the Gate (2011), and co-author of Cities and Urban Life (8th edition, 2024) and Hearts and Minds: Hizmet Schools and Interethnic Relations (2022). He is also the general editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Problems (2 vols., 2008) and writer/executive producer of six award-winning PBS documentaries.