The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900-2000 By Ben J. Wattenberg, Theodore Caplow, Louis Hicks AEI Press; 300 pages; $20.00

Review excerpt:

Edited by Ben J. Wattenberg, a lifelong student of public opinion, and the sociologists Theodore Caplow and Louis Hicks, this statistical album summarizes a century of dramatic social change. In form, the book is a compendium of charts, mostly derived from government data, each of them accompanied by a brief essay explaining its significance and bringing together a variety of related facts and explanations. But in substance it is more: a series of highly compelling and highly suggestive snapshots that reveal where our society has come from and where it might be heading.

Noah D. Oppenheim is a producer at MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Theodore Caplow is the Commonwealth Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and the author of many books, inclduing American Social Trends (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991). Louis Hicks is an associate professor of sociology at St. Mary's College of Maryland and co-author of Systems of War and Peace (University Press of America, 1995). Ben J. Wattenberg is a senior fellow at AEI, a syndicated solumnist, moderator of the PBS series "Think Tank," and author of many books, including Values Matter most (Free Press, 1995).