JULY 2020 - AudioFile
Narrator Danny Campbell puts energy into telling listeners about Houston's rowdy roots and keeps that energy throughout. His voice puts emphasis on the highs and lows as the evolution of the city is revealed, his tone ranging from boosterish to harshly critical. Author Klineberg and his Rice University students worked as part of a team that regularly polled Houston residents about their perspectives. They found a city with shifting attitudes as it became more diverse. They heard more willingness to fund education and to accept immigrants, for example. Klineberg makes the argument that "Houston is America on demographic fast-forward," its changes and needs showing the future of the United States. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
04/06/2020
Rice University sociologist Klineberg debuts with a lucid, data-driven look at Houston, Tex., based on original research tracking the demographics, economic prospects, cultural attitudes, and politics of city residents over the past 38 years. Initiated in 1982, when Houston’s booming oil economy was drawing an influx of people as the rest of America suffered through a recession, Klineberg’s annual survey revealed a mix of liberal and conservative views: the majority of respondents supported gay rights, limited restrictions on abortion access, and environmental protections, but were also “more committed to the can-do work ethic” than the rest of the country. Analyzing survey results through the decades, Klineberg highlights the region’s monumental growth and its economic diversification after the oil boom collapsed, as well as the lack of upward mobility for poorer residents, most of whom are black or Latino. He also attributes the city’s robust nonprofit sector to inadequate public funding for schools and municipal services, as well as the religious beliefs and moral values of area residents. Interspersed with interviews of dozens of Houstonians, Klineberg’s meticulous research makes a strong case that Houston, with its growing inequalities, demographic shift to a nonwhite majority, and rising social and environmental consciousness, is at the forefront of America’s future. This eye-opening and accessible study deserves a wide readership. (June)
From the Publisher
Essential . . . A long overdue urban biography . . . Engaging and accessible.” —The Houston Chronicle
"A trailblazing study . . . Klineberg supports his case with a wealth of survey research, interviews with experts, and user-friendly graphs, all of which make this book invaluable for anyone seeking a deep understanding of an underappreciated city. A unique blend of analysis and research that is likely to become a classic work of scholarship on Houston." —Kirkus (starred review)
“A fascinating portrait of Houston . . . A must-read, highly recommended sociological perspective of America’s future.” —Library Journal (starred review)
"A detailed, accessible portrait of the changing face of Houston." —New Yorker
“[A] layered, nuanced history of this ever-evolving city.” —Texas Observer
"Klineberg’s meticulous research makes a strong case that Houston, with its growing inequalities, demographic shift to a nonwhite majority, and rising social and environmental consciousness, is at the forefront of America’s future. This eye-opening and accessible study deserves a wide readership." —Publishers Weekly
"An excellent new book on Houston . . . Particularly well-timed to our current moment . . . What Klineberg does beautifully in this book is to show that the challenges that Houston is grappling with today will be the challenges that the rest of us will be facing tomorrow." —Inside Higher Ed
“It’s a relief to read a book where Houston isn’t just the backdrop—it’s the story. . . . Critical reading for anyone interested in the Bayou City.” —Texas Monthly
“Houston epitomizes the America that has emerged over the last half century—immense fortunes coupled with widespread privation; world-class cultural institutions nestled alongside impoverished slums; ethnically diverse and ambivalent about it; divided between the religiously devout and the religiously disconnected; a sprawling metropolis with colossal commutes; environmentally challenged; culturally individualistic. This book summarizes four decades of the longest, most systematic, and yet perhaps least known research project in American sociology. Its lively prose is must reading not just for Houstonians, but for any Americans interested in where we are headed.” —Robert D. Putnam, Research Professor, Harvard University, and author of Bowling Alone, Our Kids, and The Upswing
“Stephen L. Klineberg's Prophetic City is a masterfully researched and eloquently written investigation about what makes America's fourth largest city tick. All stereotypes about Houston are shattered. There is a staggering amount of fresh historical observations, environmental concerns, and urban lore in his epic book. Highly recommended!” —Douglas Brinkley, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History, Rice University, and author of American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race
"Houston is one of America’s largest and most vibrant cities. Stephen Klineberg does a great service illuminating the key factors that have driven this city’s remarkable wave of growth and change, while detailing its pressing challenges with inequality, gentrification, and climate change. Based on four decades of detailed research, Klineberg’s insights provide an alternative story, and model, of urban development that adds much to what we know from existing models based on cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and San Francisco. A must-read for all those concerned with the future of cities and urban development." —Richard Florida, author of The New Urban Crisis
Library Journal
★ 05/01/2020
Sociologist Klineberg (founding director, Kinder Inst. for Urban Research, Rice Univ.) gives a fascinating portrait of Houston in this debut. He begins with the misconceptions of Houston—an ugly, boring city that is too big for its own good. Klineberg offers a different message about the city as a purveyor of America's future, using a four-decade study to analyze how the demographics have shifted over the years, along with the varied opportunities and challenges that have occurred as a result. According to Klineberg, the city's large wealth gap is one of the significant threats to society, as it determines who lives in an environment that is more like to succeed, or who is more likely to experience hardship. This disparity is evident from the gaps between West Houston and East Houston. Education levels are exasperated by this wealth gap, which also leads to perception of governmental benefits. The author believes that diversity is Houston's biggest asset because it offers new perspectives and allows the city a chance to become an inclusive community and metropolitan area. In his words, these are lessons that the rest of the country can learn from. VERDICT A must-read, highly recommended sociological perspective of America's future.—Jacob Sherman, John Peace Lib., Univ. of Texas at San Antonio
JULY 2020 - AudioFile
Narrator Danny Campbell puts energy into telling listeners about Houston's rowdy roots and keeps that energy throughout. His voice puts emphasis on the highs and lows as the evolution of the city is revealed, his tone ranging from boosterish to harshly critical. Author Klineberg and his Rice University students worked as part of a team that regularly polled Houston residents about their perspectives. They found a city with shifting attitudes as it became more diverse. They heard more willingness to fund education and to accept immigrants, for example. Klineberg makes the argument that "Houston is America on demographic fast-forward," its changes and needs showing the future of the United States. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-04-05
A veteran sociologist maps nearly four decades of changes in an urban “bellwether of change.”
“Houston is America on demographic fast-forward,” Klineberg argues in a trailblazing study that draws on 38 years of annual surveys of residents’ views by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, of which the author is the founding director. His strongest evidence includes the “entropy index,” or “how close a given population comes to having equal fourths of Asians, blacks, Hispanics, and Anglos.” As the author notes, “by that measure, the Houston region is virtually tied with the New York metro for the diversity crown.” Yet as the city has predicted and reflected the American shift toward a more multiethnic society, it embodies the nation’s paradoxes. An anti-government, pro-business city, Houston elected the first openly lesbian mayor of a major American city, Annise Parker, in 2009, but voted against guaranteeing equal rights for the LGBTQ community in 2015. The city remains “profoundly segregated,” marked by growing income and educational inequalities. Underlying such realities are region-specific variations on national concerns such as crime, pollution, immigration, traffic congestion, and climate and economic uncertainties. Built on a swampy, bayou-laced, Gulf Coast floodplain, the city is vulnerable to devastating storms like Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and it has an industrial base in petrochemicals, raising “the question of how much longer oil and gas can sustain the Houston economy” as people turn to alternate energy sources. Although perhaps too optimistic in his conclusion that Houstonians can help to build “a truly successful universal city and nation, the first of its kind in human history,” Klineberg supports his case with a wealth of survey research, interviews with experts, and user-friendly graphs, all of which make this book invaluable for anyone seeking a deep understanding of an underappreciated city.
A unique blend of analysis and research that is likely to become a classic work of scholarship on Houston.
