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Book Details

By Michael Winkelman. Published by Eddie Bowers Publishing, Inc. Dubuque, Iowa. 1998. 690 pages. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-945483-95-3. Paperback, $35.50.

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Abstract

Ethnic Relations in the U.S. provides a sociohistorical cultural systems approach to understanding the dynamics of ethnic and intercultural relations from an anthropological perspective.  The text covers the classic material on race, ethnicity, culture, prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, and intergroup relations from an anthropological perspective, focusing on the nature of cultural systems and their effects upon perceptions, behavior and self-concept.

The first section provides a broad overview of why the U.S. has become acutely concerned with ethnic relations, showing how they have developed from both historical factors and contemporary concerns with interethnic relations and the means of successfully adapting to the multicultural societal dynamics are addressed.  The second section addresses the structural dynamics of intercultural relations, providing an understanding of the roles of culture and socialization in the construction of race, culture, and ethnicity.  The fundamental organizational principle of the book, the cultural system, is detailed from both materialist and ideological perspectives.  This provides the basis for a psychocultural model for understanding the relationship of culture to group psychology, social roles, behavior and social interaction, and self-concept.  The role of culture and socialization are detailed in the process dynamics of intergroup relations, prejudice and discrimination, and group and individual level adaptations to intercultural contact situations.  The third section addresses the historical foundations and development of ethnic relations in the U.S. In a series of chapters, Native American, European American, African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American cultures are examined to illustrate the development of U.S. ethnic relations from the 15th through 19th centuries.  The fourth section addresses the 20th century development and dynamics of ethnic relations among the major ethnic groups of the U.S., covering the nature of their cultural systems, intergroup relations, group psychocultural dynamics, and social interaction rules.

Course Use

Ethnic Relations in the U.S. provides coverage of the cultural and structural dynamics of intercultural interaction, the historical development of U.S. interethnic relations, and the nature of the contemporary multicultural U.S.  It provides material appropriate for courses on U.S. ethnic studies, the anthropology and sociology of ethnic relations, U.S. multiethnic history, multicultural education, as well as courses covering U.S. ethnic and cultural relations in cross-cultural communication, social work, psychology, and other fields.

To Order a Copy

Contact Eddie Bowers Publishing, Inc. at 1-800-747-2411 or write to them at 2600 Jackson Street; Dubuque, IA 52001-3342.

Contact Barnes & Noble at http://www.bn.com.