ABSTRACT
It seems to be an American trait to see our own history as a history of individual events and not a product of long-term social trends which affect our economy, our politics and our daily lives. Yet, it is demographic forces and population trends that we scarcely recognize and little understand which have a profound impact on our lives. Historian E.A.Wrigley reminds us in the opening of his classic Population and History that when Immanuel Kant wanted to show the regularities of what seemed to be random and unpredictable occurrences in history, he did so through the study of population (Wrigley 1969:8). The purpose of this chapter is to inquire into some of the recent population trends in the United States, to explore possible future trends, and to speculate on their impact on the politics of education. Of particular interest will be the effects of these population trends on the struggles of racial and cultural minorities for power and social justice. This inquiry will adopt the ‘long view’ of demographic trends, rather than a history of events.
