This text discusses key debates in the sociology of ethnicity and race, arguing that ethnicity is culturally expressed and politically and economically contextualised. The historical trajectories of slavery, colonialism and nation-state formation have seen ethnicities and racisms develop along some parallel, and some quite different, lines. Drawing on examples from all around the globe, including Britain, Continental Europe, the USA, Hawaii and Malaysia, this book offers a theoretically informed account of a major sociological issue in a truly international and comparative perspective.