Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World (Sociology for a New Century)

By Douglas Hartmann and Stephen E. Cornell

Book Overview

This cross-cultural and cross-national approach to ethnicity and race analyzes how race and ethnic identities are socially constructed, institutionalized and maintained. Throughout, the authors use contemporary examples from across the world, including extended case studies of ethnic/identity construction in the former Yugoslavia, South Africa and New Zealand.

The authors demonstrate why ethnic and racial boundaries over the last 30 years and contrary to earlier, optimistic predictions have become stronger and more strident under the pressures of modernization, mass communication and secularization. The book concludes by discussing how the downward spiral of hate and separateness can be halted, and even reversed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761985018
• ISBN13: 9780761985013
• Release Date: July 1997
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A thought-provoking overview of ethnicity and race

Ethnicity and race are controversial topics in many respects, but understanding these concepts is an important step in the process of dealing with and confronting the issues they present. This book walks the reader through over a century of social theory on race and ethnicity, dissecting the different theories and pointing out the strengths and weaknesses in each. It also effectively uses historical examples to illustrate the concepts it presents. For anyone who is interested in the topic, this book is an excellent primer that will provide a great conceptual basis for further study in the fields concerning race and ethnicity.