This is a study of the main ethnic groups in California and is the only study that offers a direct comparison of these various ethnic groups. The author presents the thesis that the upward mobility of an ethnic group is determined not only by its infrastructure but also by the infrastructure of the situation the group encounters. For example, the chapter on history emphasizes economics and demographics more than subcultural values and attitudes. Other chapters similarly emphasize infrastructure, covering each group's demographic composition, intermarriage rates, residential segregation, and labor force characteristics. Few analyses of census data have so self-consciously incorporated historical material in order to help elucidate statistical results and provide an integrated and comparative view of ethnicity in American society.
