Conceiving a curiosity about America ,I finished another book about America----<Contemporary American Society>.The author is Liu Yongtao, who was born in Wuhan City in 1957. Liu Yongtao was accepted as a student of Foreign Languages Department at Nankai University in Tianjin in 1978. In 1987, Liu entered the graduate school of Fudan University for further study, and he got his master’s degree and doctor’s degree in 1990 and in 1994 respectively. He called on Department of Political Science of University of Minnesota University for a whole year in 1996. From Sep. 1999 to Feb. 2000, he worked as a visiting scholar at American studies’ Center of Hong Kong University. Now he is working at American Studies’ Center of Fudan University in Shanghai. And his main directions are American government and politics, America’s diplomacy and the theory of international relationship.

  <Contemporary American Society> was published in 2001, so “contemporary” here actually means American in the 1990s. In this book, the author tries to portray the major aspects in American society in the 1990s objectively for us. As Liu Yongtao said, American society was quite colorful and complicated and it seemed impossible to describe all, so he chose some social aspects that were considered as most argumentative and could reveal the main strains of the social situations in the past decades. Through his description, an American image in the 1990s is revealed quite completely. We can figure out how many efforts the author has made and learn much information.

  This book is divided into 10 chapters: Chapter1, Backgrounds of contemporary American society; Chapter2, Ethnic composition of American society; Chapter3, Welfare of contemporary American sociery; Chapter4, Public health of American society, Chapter5, Crimes and anti-crimes of contemporary American society; Chapter6, Drugs problems in contemporary American society; Chapter7, Gun culture of American society; Chapter8, Women problems in America; Chapter9, Family problems of contemporary American society; Chapter10, Environmental protection problems in American society. Indeed, the most outstanding problems are included.

  To reveal a society is not an easy job, so the author has to work out some strategies. Liu yongtao has a strong sense of structure. The 10 chapters presented above define the outline of this book. The title of each chapter is very clear, so the clues are easy to follow. In each chapter, the author shows what will be talked in the following paragraphs at the very beginning, thus the outline of each chapter comes out, too. Each chapter has several sections that are organized in order to make the author’s opinions clear. In the end of each chapter, the author also makes a summary which can certainly remind me of what have been talked. In this way, I can have a clear mind about what’s going on and truly keep some information in my mind.

  In this book, in order to add the credibility and show American society more clearly, Liu Yongtao used a lot of figures and examples. Figures and examples are everywhere, and what’s more, they are very exact----Years and months are clear, every number is nearly up to the unit, and I seldom found “about” in the descriptions. To support every fact, there would always be enough proofs. For example, in order to present the ethnic conflicts, Liu listed 20 events about the fire that broke out in the churches of black people. Each event has an exact date and the places are clear. In order to reveal the gun abuse in America, 12 incidents with exact dates and locations that happened on campus only are presented. Examples like these are really everywhere in the book, and I just can’t list them all. The precise figures and examples always take me aback, and thus I strongly believe that what is on paper is real and I have a better understanding at American society in the 1990s. Meanwhile, I have learned how much work the author has done.

  As far as I can see, a good structure and strong demonstrations are the most outstanding tools with which Liu Yongtao let his book make sense. A more real American society is unveiled to me. I would have believed America to be better as it has impressed me before. A super country has so many serious problems to deal with. I think may be there are still some biases in the author because after reading this book, the deepest impression is that America is so terrible a country that no one can keep on living there. In fact, there have been some progresses in America in every aspect. And the author also found some materials to prove that. But the examples are not enough to recover my confidence in America. As far as I know, America has problems on one hand, but more developments on the other hand, or it would have messed up. And I think to describe a society should be complete ,both in problems and developments . At least, after reading, we can figure out that whether it is a positive society with many problems or a negative society with several progresses. And I think America belongs to the former one. From my point of view, if the author adds some more proofs to prove the developments in American society, this book will be greater.

  In addition, I think education is also a very important part of American society in the 1990s. Education also had drew a lot of attention in the 1990s, and education can always reflect a society in many aspects, what’s more, education of America always has a great influence on the world, so I think it should be covered in this book.

  As to the whole structure of the book, I think there should be a summary in the end just like the summaries in each chapter. Because every chapter is talking about a different topic, and in fact all the topics belong to American society, I think they should perform to be a whole. So there must be some links to link them all and thus the author can draw a complete picture for American society at the very end and make the picture remain in our heads to let us rethink about what we have learned in his work. Thus this book will be a bit more complete to me.

  Anyway I indeed have learned a lot after reading this book. Thanks for Liu Yongyao, I have acquired more knowledge about American society. Although this book might be a little out of date, I can have a better understanding at the present American society through reading its history. Now, America, as the only super country in the world, is keeping flying with its many problems. Americans will try their best to solve the problems just as we are doing our best to boost our modernization.