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The Census, Political Power, and Social Change: The Significance of Population Growth in American History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Margo Conk*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee

Extract

The 1980 census was a recurring “current event,” the twentieth such census since the founding of the nation in 1789. As such, the census retained echoes of its distant past, and formed part of a tradition that provides many of the guideposts or bench marks of change. It is useful, therefore, to look at the census and census taking as historical processes that illustrate the issues that have concerned past generations of Americans as they watched the development of their population, culture, and society.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1984 

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