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"Kingsley Davis (1908-1997) was one of the pioneers in social demography, and was particularly identified with the theory of the demographic transition. This holds that the process of industrialization first causes mortality to decline, leading to a substantial rate of population growth and only later causes fertility to fall, leading eventually to the cessation of population growth. Kingsley Davis is especially remembered for his arresting and forceful critique of family-planning programs intended to achieve zero population growth. Before he devoted his major attention to social demography, Davis had distinguished himself through influential articles on the structure of family and kinship, including the topics of jealousy and sexual property, the sociology of prostitution, and illegitimacy. He had an early interest in structural-functional analysis, which resulted in his famous and controversial article on stratification, co-authored with Wilbert Moore, and his equally famous presidential address to the American Sociological Association in 1959. David Heer's biography of Kingsley Davis is based on material contained in the Kingsley Davis Archive at the Hoover Institution Library at Stanford University, the Kingsley Davis graduate file at Harvard University, the interview of Kingsley Davis by Jean van der Tak in Demographic Destinies (1990), and David Heer's personal relationship with Kingsley Davis. The book also contains thirty of the most important writings by Kingsley Davis. These were chosen, in part, for the number of citations received in the Cumulative Social Science Citation Index, and in part to ensure that readers would be able to assess the continuity of Kingsley Davis's ideas at all stages of his career."--Provided by publisher.

This article reviews studies concerning the impact of sibling number on a selected series of outcomes including IQ, educational attainment, status of current job, and current earnings, Sibling number is a variable over time and cannot be properly measured unless data are available on the number and timing of all births and the age at which each child in the family ceases to be dependent. Unfortunately, existing research is too much based on secondary analysis of data sets for which all of the requisite information is not available. Controversies surround the question whether there is a causal impact of sibling number on IQ and, if so, how it can be explained; these are reviewed in detail. Research on the impact of sibling number on the other three dependent variables is reviewed, particularly where it contributes to our knowledge of the impact on educational attainment net of IQ, on job status net of education attainment, and on current earnings net of job status. It is concluded that decisions on the number and spacing of children are among the most important decisions parents can make. Therefore the large amounts of funds needed for data collection will be funds well spent.

Die Rolle und Bedeutung bi-kultureller Ehen für die ethnischen Beziehungen in den USA werden diskutiert. Dazu werden Gründe für solche Ehen, Definitionen und empirische Daten sowie Beschreibungen interkonfessioneller und interrassischer Ehen geboten. Es wird verdeutlicht, daß die bi-kulturellen Ehen die Eigenart der ethnischen Gruppen in den USA merklich verändert haben, besonders bei den aus Europa eingewanderten Bevölkerungsgruppen. Der Verfasser nimmt an, daß die in den letzten Jahren lebhaft gestiegene Zahl bi-kultureller Ehen zur Entwicklung eines wirklichen kulturellen Pluralismus führen wird. (HA)