First published in 1989, Race-Ethnicity and Society comes as a usable and comprehensive text on race and ethnicity in the United States. Ringer and Lawless set out to fill the gap in the literature by incorporating the "positive lessons" of the racially turbulent 1960's and 70s. Proposing a challenge to three conventional premises of many texts, they argue that the treatment of racial minorities in America was qualitatively different from that experienced by the white immigrants; that racism was not a mere aberration in American Society but was built into the very foundations of the society; and that America's experience with minorities was not unique but can instead be located within the mainstream of European expansion and conquest.

Race-Ethnicity and Society will be a standard source for students in the fields of sociology, history, and political science.