CornellStephenHartmannDouglas. 2004. “Conceptual Confusions and Divides: Race, Ethnicity, and the Study of Immigration.” In Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States, ed. FonerNancyFredricksonGeorge M. (Russell Sage Foundation, 2004). Cornell and Hartmann compare the concepts of race and ethnicity and discuss the sociological analyses that traditionally employ them.
2.
FredricksonGeorge M.. Racism: A Short History (Princeton University Press, 2002). A concise and engaging history of the concept of race.
3.
HollingerDavid. Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism (Basic Books, 1995). In this influential and readable essay challenging our everyday conflation of the terms race and culture, Hollinger uses the phrase “ethno-racial pentagon” to describe the current (though not official) tendency to recognize the following as races: whites, Hispanics, blacks, Asians, and American Indians.
4.
WeberMax. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology (University of California Press, 1978). In chapter 5, “Ethnic Groups,” Weber scrutinizes the concept of ethnicity as a basis for social action, yet concludes that it “dissolves if we define our terms exactly” and is “unsuitable for a really rigorous analysis.”.
