Global economic transformations have never been as dramatic as in the twentieth century. Most countries have experienced radical changes in the standards of income per capita, technology, fertility, mortality, income inequality and the extent of democracy in the course of the past century. It is the goal of many disciplines--economics, history,…

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, this edition of "The State of the World's Children" calls for brave and fresh thinking to address age-old problems that still affect the world's most disadvantaged children. The report is inspired by the work of innovators around the world--who are pushing…

This report describes the extent and causes of widespread hunger in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean using case studies of Bangladesh, Brazil, and Mozambique and profiles of 42 other countries. Current evidence points to more than half a billion people who chronically lack enough food for a normal life and an equal…

Rwanda is on the verge of a breakthrough. Having weathered one of the worst humanitarian crises imaginable just fifteen years ago, and with an impoverished countryside plagued by HIV/AIDS, hunger, and malaria, Rwanda seems an unlikely place for an economic renaissance. Yet the nation's commitment to good government and support for free market…

This paper describes the decline and polarization of American cities into two separate and coterminous systems: the city of the poor, characterized by the function of redistribution (i.e., public welfare benefits); and the city of the elite, a city of information processing, economic facilitation, and consumption. Demographic trends and social and…

Politicians and the media typically focus on single issues, positing simplistic solutions for complex problems--solutions that cannot work because they fail to take into consideration how different social problems influence and affect each other. This book provides a guide to key social factors, highlighting the critical interrelationships among…

Claiming that politicians, private interests, and the media unfairly blame adolescents for America's social problems, this book explodes various myths about teen pregnancy, violence, and risk behaviors. The chapters are: (1) "Impounding the Future," examining trends in various social indicators such as rising rates of child poverty…

The most remarkable trend in the U.S. labor force over the past 3 decades has been the entrance of more and more mothers of young children. In 1985, a total of 54 percent of the women with children under 6 years of age were working--four times the 1950 level. This report summarizes recent trends in labor force participation and outlines some of…

This document is an edited transcript of the addresses given at a symposium on violence at Brown University. The "Foreword" (Lewis P. Lipsitt) calls for better methodologies or "path analyses" to show the courses of development that conduce to criminal careers, family destruction, and community insouciance. Keynote speeches…

This book offers an in-depth look at U.S. culture during a 45-year period when the threat of nuclear war loomed over millions worldwide, and post-World War II ideological tensions took form as an ever-deepening chasm separating two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The book finds that the national and global societies that…