America's Top-Rated Cities is a four-volume set, each book covering a specific region of the United States - Southern, Western, Central, and Eastern. Each volume includes statistical information and other data in one easy-to-use source on cities which have been cited in various magazine surveys as being the best places for business and living. Book jacket.

This book provides a comprehensive and detailed investigation of a major U.S. city, examining topics that include the economy, demographics, transportation, housing, and race. The book examines the changes that have occurred over the past three decades, exploring the factors associated with those changes and discussing future prospects.

America's Top-Rated Cities is a four-volume set, each book covering a specific region of the United States - Southern, Wstern, Central, and Eastern. Each volume includes narrative city backgrounds, statistical information, rankings, and comparative data in one easy-to-use source, on cities that have scored high marks on economy, education, health care, crime, transportation, leisure activities, and arts & culture. the final list of top-rated cities is derived from our unique rating system, which is based on a number of well-known "best of" lists and firth-hand experience

TheStreet.com Ratings Guide to Health Insurers is the first and only source to cover the financial stability of the nation's health care system, rating the financial safety of more than 6,000 health insurance providers, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and all of the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans - updated quarterly to ensure the most accurate information. The Guide also provides a complete listing of all the major health insurers, including all Long-Term Care and Medigap insurers. Our Guide to Health Insurers includes comprehensive, timely coverage on the financial stability of HMOs and health insurers; the most accurate insurance company ratings available-the same quality ratings heralded by the U.S. General Accounting Office; separate listings for those companies offering Medigap and long-term care policies; the number of serious consumer complaints filed against most HMOs so you can see who is actually providing the best (or worst) service and more. The easy-to-use layout gives you a one-line summary analysis for each company that we track, followed by an in-depth, detailed analysis of all HMOs and the largest health insurers. The guide also includes a list of TheStreet.com Ratings Recommended Companies with information on how to contact them, and the reasoning behind any rating upgrades or downgrades.

Great American City demonstrates the powerfully enduring impact of place. Based on one of the most ambitious studies in the history of social science, Robert J. Sampson’s Great American City presents the fruits of over a decade’s research to support an argument that we all feel and experience every day: life is decisively shaped by your neighborhood. Engaging with the streets and neighborhoods of Chicago, Sampson, in this new edition, reflects on local and national changes that have transpired since his book’s initial publication, including a surge in gun violence and novel forms of segregation despite an increase in diversity. New research, much of it a continuation of the influential discoveries in Great American City, has followed, and here, Sampson reflects on its meaning and future directions. Sampson invites readers to see the status of the research initiative that serves as the foundation of the first edition—the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN)—and outlines the various ways other scholars have continued his work. Both accessible and incisively thorough, Great American City is a must-read for anyone interested in cutting-edge urban sociology and the study of crime.

"Many cities have a rich past. No one knows if many have a future" Richard C. Longworth Caught in the Middle, 2007, p. 28 "In the last six decades, no stagnant or decaying city has been globally or signifi cantly saved - never" David H. McDonald "More and more, federal and state governments are growing their already out-of-control fi nancial problems. Cities are on their own to sink or swim, now more than ever" David H. McDonald "Only two states in the nation have, over time, lost population. If the states are gaining population but the cities are losing, then it is the cities' fault" David H. McDonald "Occasionally a city will, usually by accident, 'back into' attempting growth in the right manner. It always works" David H. McDonald "Virtually no city has a workable vision of how to even achieve stability - let alone a return to vibrancy. Th is book presents such a vision and a clear path to beginning the process of stabilization and growth" David H. McDonald "Whatever is going to save your cities, it won't be government. Both political parties are largely trapped in the past, driven by a desire to protect old sacred cows"

Each volume in the widely-successful Working Americans series focuses on a particular type of American and illustrates what life was like for that group from the 1800s to the present time. The volumes are arranged into decade-long chapters, each introducing to the reader three individuals or families. Individual profiles examine life at home, life at work, life in the community, family finances and budget, cost of living and amusements. To further the reader's understanding of the time period, profiles are supplemented with national current events, economic profiles, an historical snapshot, news profiles, local news articles and illustrations derived from popular printed materials. Profiles cover a wide range of ethnic groups and span the entire country, providing a thorough examination of all types of Americans in that particular group. From a wealth of government surveys, social worker histories, economic data, family diaries and letters, newspaper and magazine features, these unique volumes assemble a remarkably personal and realistic look at the lives of Americans. For easy reference, Volumes II through VIII contain an in-depth Subject Index to make sure that the reader can locate specific information quickly and easily. The Working Americans series has become an important reference for public libraries, academic libraries and high school libraries. These volumes will enrich the reader's understanding of American history, through the eyes of its people, and will be a welcome addition to all types of reference collections.

The fifth edition of this text presents a balanced review of the ecological arguments that the urban arena produces unique experiential and urban-based cultural effects while exploring the broader political and economic contexts that produce and modify the urban environment. In addition to examining the urban dimensions of such topics as community formation and continuity, minority and majority dynamics, ethnic experience, poverty, power, and crime, it provides an analysis of the spatial distribution of population and resources with regard to the metropolitanization of the urban form, and the interaction between urban concentration and development and underdevelopment. From a first chapter that begins with a discussion of some of the more micrological features of the urban experience, the text focuses on the significance of the more macrological cultural, social organizational, and political dimensions of urban change, in an historical span that includes the first cities and concludes with an exploration of the implications of cyberspace, transnationalism, and global terrorism for the future of urban sociology. While the work focuses primarily on the North American case, its analytical and integrated discussion makes it applicable to urban societies in general.