Racial and Ethnic Groups, 15th edition
Title overview
For courses in Race and Ethnic Relations.
Highlight the changing dynamics of the US population
Racial and Ethnic Groups helps students view race and ethnic relations in a sociohistorical context, so they can understand the past and see how to shape the future. Author Richard Schaefer's narrative is driven by engaging first-person accounts that illuminate, and reveal the stories behind, the changing dynamics of the US population.
The 15th Edition offers new Relations Across Boundaries features that focus on interactions between different groups, as well as thoroughly updated data and contemporary topics.
Hallmark features of this title
- Speaking Out features provide firsthand commentaries on race and ethnicity in America, including responses to challenges facing specific racial and ethnic groups.
- The Spectrum of Intergroup Relations addresses the unique social circumstances of individual racial and ethnic groups.
- An extensive illustration program, which includes maps and political cartoons, provokes thought.
- Key terms are highlighted when they are introduced, collected at the end of each chapter, and listed in a chapter-ending glossary.
- Chapter-ending review questions test student understanding of the chapter's major points.
- Critical thinking questions at the end of each chapter encourage students to think deeply about key issues raised in the chapter.
New and updated features of this title
- NEW: Relations Across Boundaries features describe the interactions between racial, ethnic and religious groups.
- UPDATED: Research Focus and Global View boxes offer new insights into the ever-changing nature of race and ethnicity. Twelve of these features are new to the 15th Edition.
- NEW: Updated content throughout the 15th Edition includes entirely new sections on contemporary issues.
Key features
Highlights of the DIGITAL UPDATE for Revel (available for Spring 2021 classes)
Instructors, contact your sales rep to ensure you have the most recent version of the course.
- NEW: Trending features discuss relevant contemporary topics such as Native Americans in college and the growth of Islam in the US.
- UPDATED: Data-rich interactive maps, figures, and tables with Social Explorer technology let students interact with real data to explore key concepts. For the Digital Update, all have been updated with the latest available data.
- UPDATED: Current Event Bulletins bring currency into your classroom with author-written articles that connect key concepts with real-life current events. New articles include “Native American Sovereignty in Oklahoma” and “The Pandemic's Toll on Latinos.”
- UPDATED: Revised material reflects the latest events and trends, such as an updated assessment of Puerto Rico post Hurricane Maria.
Features of Revel for the 15th Edition; published 2020
- The Pearson Originals docuseries is a series of high-quality social impact videos that exemplify and humanize key sociological concepts. These videos help students connect with stories on a personal level, view people with greater empathy and contextualize core concepts.
Table of contents
- Exploring Race and Ethnicity
- Prejudice
- Discrimination
- Immigration
- Ethnicity, Whiteness, and Religion
- Native Americans: The First Americans
- African Americans
- African Americans Today
- Latinos. Growth and Diversity
- Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans
- Muslim and Arab Americans: Diverse Minorities
- Asian Pacific Americans: An Array of Nationalities
- Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans
- Jewish Americans: The Quest to Maintain Identity
- Women: The Oppressed Majority
- Beyond the United States: The Comparative Perspective
- Overcoming Exclusion
Author bios
About our authors
Richard T. Schaefer grew up in Chicago at a time when neighborhoods were going through transitions in ethnic and racial composition. He found himself increasingly intrigued by what was happening, how people were reacting, and how these changes were affecting neighborhoods and people's jobs. In high school, he took a course in sociology. His interest in social issues caused him to gravitate to more sociology courses at Northwestern University, where he eventually received a B.A. in sociology.
“Originally as an undergraduate I thought I would go on to law school and become a lawyer. But after taking a few sociology courses, I found myself wanting to learn more about what sociologists studied and was fascinated by the kinds of questions they raised,” Dr. Schaefer says. “Perhaps most fascinating and, to me, relevant to the 1960s was the intersection of race, gender and social class.” This interest led him to obtain his M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Schaefer's continuing interest in race relations led him to write his master's thesis on the membership of the Ku Klux Klan and his doctoral thesis on racial prejudice and race relations in Great Britain.
Dr. Schaefer went on to become a professor of sociology. He has taught sociology and courses on multiculturalism for 30 years. He has been invited to give special presentations on racial and ethnic diversity to students and faculty in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.
Dr. Schaefer is the author of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the USA (Pearson, 2014) and Race Matters, 4th Edition (Pearson, 2012). He is the general editor of the 3-volume Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society(2008). He is also the author of the 12th Edition of Sociology: A Brief Introduction (2017), the 4th Edition of Sociology: A Modular Approach (2015), and the 7th Edition of Sociology Matters (2018). He coauthored with William Zellner the 9th Edition of Extraordinary Groups (2015). His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish, as well as adapted for use in Canadian colleges. His articles and book reviews have appeared in many journals, including American Journal of Sociology, Phylon: A Review of Race and Culture, Contemporary Sociology, Sociology and Social Research, Sociological Quarterly and Teaching Sociology. He served as president of the Midwest Sociological Society from 1994 to 1995. In recognition of his achievements in undergraduate teaching, he was named Vincent de Paul Professor of Sociology in 2004.