Midwestern Mosaic

J. Celeste Lay is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Tulane University in New Orleans.

"A Midwestern Mosaic makes important contributions to several literatures. To political scientists, the book offers insights about the roles of time and racial context in the political socialization of adolescents and the importance of systematically analyzing rural politics. Contributions to immigration research focusing on non-traditional destinations includes information about how quickly adolescents can adapt to demographic change, the emphasis on political socialization, and the formal comparison of immigrant-receiving communities that, on their face, might appear to be quite similar. [Lay's] qualitative data also yield important insights about what high schools and other institutions in rapidly changing communities can do to encourage positive relationships between long-time residents and newcomers. For all of these reasons, this book will be of great interest to scholars, community leaders, policymakers, and others."--International Migration Review, Spring 2013 "A Midwestern Mosaic is well ahead of the curve. This book provides a comparative community case study of the implications of new minority growth in two new Hispanic rural destinations in Northwest Iowa... A Midwestern Mosaic provides an empirical benchmark on an important topic... [I]t is as much about racial and ethnic attitudes as it is about rural political socialization or the potential casual mechanisms that contribute to evolving attitudes (movement along the continuum between political left and right) among native-born rural youth and adolescents. In the end, A Midwestern Mosaic probably raises more (good) questions than it answers, but this is a positive feature of this short book." - Contemporary Sociology

• A Midwestern Mosaic: Immigration and Political Socialization in Rural America; J. Celeste Lay; Table of Contents; Prologue and Acknowledgements; Introduction: Places and Political Learning; 1: Transformation of Small Town America; 2: A Natural Experiment in Iowa Towns; 3: Seeing Race: Attitudes toward Immigrants and Symbolic Racism; 4: No Retreat: Civic Withdrawal and Immigration; 5: Gradual Progress; 6: What Happened to My Town?; Conclusion: The Implications of a New Normal; Appendix A; Appendix B; Appendix C; Bibliography.