Michael Katz: 'Paradox of inequality' remains, says U.S. historian
Michael Katz has established himself as one of the United States' pre-eminent historians of social change, delving into education, urbanization, family life, and poverty in a distinguished career at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Katz, who previously taught at York University and the University of Toronto, co-wrote the 2006 book One Nation Indivisible: What America Was and What It Is Becoming. In the book, he and Mark Stern discuss his country's demographic, social and geographic trends over the past 100 years, with a focus on city life.
Mr. Katz, who will lecture today at 7 p.m. at the University of Ottawa's New Residence, recently spoke to the Citizen's Andrew Thomson from his Philadelphia office about the nature of riots, the historic roots of inequality, and the role of government in American life.
Q: The United States experienced widespread civil unrest and rioting during the 1960s. Today, Hurricane Katrina has thrown New Orleans and the Gulf coast asunder, but no similar uprisings have occurred. Why hasn't the communal violence we witnessed in France's low-income suburbs during the fall of 2005 been repeated stateside?
A: Part of the difference lies in the fact that the collective violence has been transmuted into individual violence against one another within inner cities. Mine is definitely not a cultural argument--it's structural.
Q: What are some of those structural factors in American cities that deter mass rioting?
A: There's been a changing demographic. For instance, when the riots took place in the 1960s, there was still a lot of racial diversity and cities were normally under the control of whites. But there's been a massive movement of whites out of cities ever since. It's a very different situation now.
Q: The United States has taken a different approach to assimilating immigrants than in Canada or Western Europe. How has this manifested itself?
A: On one side is the historical success of America in taking immigrant groups and permitting them to integrate. You would never find the kind of prohibition against, for instance, wearing head scarves, as you see in France. The other side is this schizophrenic side, which you see today through hostility towards undocumented immigrants.
Q: You write that a key factor toward the lack of "burning" American cities is the incorporation and control of immigrants into the general population. How does the controversy over illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America fit this trend?
A: They are in a very vulnerable position (without legal status). That's a pretty effective measure of controlling them militarily.
Q: Is there any possibility of American cities falling prey in the near future?
A: Historians are terrible predictors, but I don't expect it to happen. I've been surprised before, though. There may be episodes here and there, but it's not likely to recur on the same level of the 1960s....
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Mr. Katz, who previously taught at York University and the University of Toronto, co-wrote the 2006 book One Nation Indivisible: What America Was and What It Is Becoming. In the book, he and Mark Stern discuss his country's demographic, social and geographic trends over the past 100 years, with a focus on city life.
Mr. Katz, who will lecture today at 7 p.m. at the University of Ottawa's New Residence, recently spoke to the Citizen's Andrew Thomson from his Philadelphia office about the nature of riots, the historic roots of inequality, and the role of government in American life.
Q: The United States experienced widespread civil unrest and rioting during the 1960s. Today, Hurricane Katrina has thrown New Orleans and the Gulf coast asunder, but no similar uprisings have occurred. Why hasn't the communal violence we witnessed in France's low-income suburbs during the fall of 2005 been repeated stateside?
A: Part of the difference lies in the fact that the collective violence has been transmuted into individual violence against one another within inner cities. Mine is definitely not a cultural argument--it's structural.
Q: What are some of those structural factors in American cities that deter mass rioting?
A: There's been a changing demographic. For instance, when the riots took place in the 1960s, there was still a lot of racial diversity and cities were normally under the control of whites. But there's been a massive movement of whites out of cities ever since. It's a very different situation now.
Q: The United States has taken a different approach to assimilating immigrants than in Canada or Western Europe. How has this manifested itself?
A: On one side is the historical success of America in taking immigrant groups and permitting them to integrate. You would never find the kind of prohibition against, for instance, wearing head scarves, as you see in France. The other side is this schizophrenic side, which you see today through hostility towards undocumented immigrants.
Q: You write that a key factor toward the lack of "burning" American cities is the incorporation and control of immigrants into the general population. How does the controversy over illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America fit this trend?
A: They are in a very vulnerable position (without legal status). That's a pretty effective measure of controlling them militarily.
Q: Is there any possibility of American cities falling prey in the near future?
A: Historians are terrible predictors, but I don't expect it to happen. I've been surprised before, though. There may be episodes here and there, but it's not likely to recur on the same level of the 1960s....