All historians would agree that America is a nation of nations. But what does that mean in terms of the issues that have moved and shaped us as a people? Contemporary concerns such as bilingualism, incorporation/assimilation, dual identity, ethnic politics, quotas and affirmative action, residential segregation, and the volume of immigration resonate with a past that has confronted variations of these modern issues. The Columbia Documentary History of Race and Ethnicity in America, written and compiled by a highly respected team of American historians under the editorship of Ronald Bayor, illuminates the myriad ways in which immigration, racial, and ethnic histories have shaped the contours of contemporary American society.

This invaluable resource documents all eras of the American past, including black–white interactions and the broad spectrum of American attitudes and reactions concerning Native Americans, Irish Catholics, Mexican Americans, Jewish Americans, and other groups. Each of the eight chronological chapters contains a survey essay, an annotated bibliography, and 20 to 30 related public and private primary source documents, including manifestos, speeches, court cases, letters, memoirs, and much more. From the 1655 petition of Jewish merchants regarding the admission of Jews to the New Netherlands colony to an interview with a Chinese American worker regarding a 1938 strike in San Francisco, documents are drawn from a variety of sources and allow students and others direct access to our past.

Selections include

Powhatan to John Smith, 1609

Thomas Jefferson—"Notes on the State of Virginia"

Petition of the Trustees of Congregation Shearith Israel, 1811

Bessie Conway or, The Irish Girl in America

German Society in Chicago, Annual Report, 1857–1858.

"Mark Twain's Salutation to the Century"

W. E. B. DuBois, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings"

NAACP on Black Schoolteachers'Fight for Equal Pay

Malcom X speech, 1964

Hewy Newton interview and Black Panther Party platform

Preamble—La Raza Unida Party

Lee lacocca speech to Ethnic Heritage Council of the Pacific Northwest, 1984

Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, 1990

L.A. riot—from the Los Angeles Times, May 3, 15, 1992; Nov. 16, 19, 1992

Asian American Political Alliance

President Clinton's Commission on Race, Town Meeting, 1997

Louis Farrakhan—"The Vision for the Million Man March"