Includes bibliographical references and index.

Irish and blacks -- Italians and latinos -- Jews and Asians.

Sometimes in this century, we are told, the United States will become a "majority-minority" country -that is, a nation where whites make up less than 50 percent of the population. Many belive this signals a fundamental change in America. Does it? Is the melting pot a thing of the past? Absolutely not, say political historian Michael Barone. In The new Americans, Barone reminds us that the United States has never been a homogeneous, monoethnic nation. He reveals how the new Americans of today can be interwoven into the fabric of American life just as immigrants have been interwoven throughout U.S. history. If we heed the lessons of America's past -and avoid misguided policies and programs that hinder rather than help assimilation- the melting pot can work as well today as it always has.