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 "e;positive lessons"e; 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.