This volume brings together selections of enduring intellectual value--classic articles, book excerpts, and research studies--that have shaped the study of race and ethnicity and our contemporary understanding of it. The selections are organized topically around major areas of study within race and ethnicity: basic concepts and issues; theoretical orientations to the study of race and ethnicity in the U.S.; race and ethnicity in American institutions; race and ethnicity in popular culture; and the future of race and ethnic relations in the U.S.