Reinventing the Melting Pot: The New Immigrants and What It Means To Be American [Paperback]

Nothing happening in America today will do more to affect our children's future than the wave of new immigrants flooding into the country, mostly from the developing world. Already, one in ten Americans is foreign-born, and if one counts their children, one-fifth of the population can be considered immigrants. Will these newcomers make it in the U.S? Or will today's realities -- from identity politics to cheap and easy international air travel -- mean that the age-old American tradition of absorption and assimilation no longer applies?Reinventing the Melting Potis a conversation among two dozen of the thinkers who have looked longest and hardest at the issue of how immigrants assimilate: scholars, journalists, and fiction writers, on both the left and the right. The contributors consider virtually every aspect of the issue and conclude that, of course, assimilation can and must work again -- but for that to happen, we must find new ways to think and talk about it. Contributors toReinventing the Melting Potinclude Michael Barone, Stanley Crouch, Herbert Gans, Nathan Glazer, Michael Lind, Orlando Patterson, Gregory Rodriguez, and Stephan Thernstrom.Tamar Jacobyis a journalist formerly on staff at theNew York Review of Books, Newsweek, and theNew York Times, where she was deputy editor of the op-ed page. A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, she writes frequently about race and other social issues for theWall Street Journal, theNew Republic, Commentary, Dissent, and other publications.