4/5 What’s a better way to “Read Local” than to read a book focused on your town, Gnomies? When seeking out books set in my hometown of Houston, Texas, a Gnomie recommended Prophetic City: Houston on the Cusp of a Changing America by Stephen L. Klineberg. I’m definitely counting Prophetic City… as my book set in HTown for the Read Local Stellar Reading Challenge (SRC).
“Sociologist Stephen Klineberg presents fascinating and groundbreaking research that shows how the city of Houston has emerged as a microcosm for America’s future—based on an unprecedented thirty-eight-year study of its changing economic, demographic, and cultural landscapes… Houston, Texas, long thought of as a traditionally blue-collar black/white southern city, has transformed into one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse metro areas in the nation, surpassing even New York by some measures… With a diversifying economy and large numbers of both highly-skilled technical jobs in engineering and medicine and low-skilled minimum-wage jobs in construction, restaurant work, and personal services, Houston has become a magnet for the new divergent streams of immigration that are transforming America in the 21st century. And thanks to an annual systematic survey conducted over the past thirty-eight years, the ongoing changes in attitudes, beliefs, and life experiences have been measured and studied, creating a compelling data-driven map of the challenges and opportunities that are facing Houston and the rest of the country… In Prophetic City, we’ll meet some of the new Americans, including a family who moved to Houston from Mexico in the early 1980s and is still trying to find work that pays more than poverty wages. There’s a young man born to highly-educated Indian parents in an affluent Houston suburb who grows up to become a doctor in the world’s largest medical complex, as well as a white man who struggles with being prematurely pushed out of the workforce when his company downsizes… This timely and groundbreaking book tracks the progress of an American city like never before. Houston is at the center of the rapid changes that have redefined the nature of American society itself in the new century. Houston is where, for better or worse, we can see the American future emerging.”
Klineberg’s study of Houston amazed me in both its depth and breadth. While I knew some of the info shared in Prophetic City…, I also learned many things about the Energy Capital of the World <smile>. It took me a few months to read Prophetic City… because other library patrons and I took turns checking out this book. Klineberg excelled in explaining why Houston possesses certain facets — lack of zoning, traffic woes, phenomenal citizens and cuisine. Also, early on in Prophetic City…, Klineberg stated that a number of sociological trends happen in Houston first. A couple of these deal with the economy — the 1982 Crash and the Enron Scandal. This held my fascination throughout most of the work. As more of a recreational historian and less of a leisurely sociologist or statistician, I found various data pours rather dry and dull. Yet, I recommend this book to anyone interested in Houston’s history.
Quotes come from book flaps/cover and are featured on color blocks.
Starry Night Elf 
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