The Bubbling Cauldron

Race, Ethnicity, and the Urban Crisis

1995

Michael Peter Smith and Joe R. Feagin, editors

How can race and ethnicity be understood as questions of power? How do changes among racial and ethnic groups alter conflicts about these groups’ identities and the resultant power structure shaped by these conflicts? The contributors to this important new volume take up these questions and others as they delve beneath the turbulent surface of racial and ethnic relations in urban centers worldwide. Contributors: Sophie Body-Gendrot, the Sorbonne and the Institute of Political Science, Paris; Harold Brackman, Simon Wiesenthal Center; James Button, U of Florida; Sharon Collins, U of Illinois, Chicago; Steven P. Erie, U of California, San Diego; Norman Fainstein, Vassar College; Cedric Herring, U of Illinois, Chicago; Michael Hodge, Georgia State U; Leslie Baham Inniss, Florida State U; Martín Sánchez Jankowski, U of California, Berkeley; Michael Kearney, U of California, Riverside; Edward Murguia, Texas A&M; Adolph Reed Jr., Northwestern U; Nestor Rodríguez, U of Houston; Bernadette Tarallo, U of California, Davis; Roger Waldinger, UCLA; and Howard Winant, Temple U.

How can race and ethnicity be understood as questions of power? How do changes among racial and ethnic groups alter conflicts about these groups’ identities and the resultant power structure shaped by these conflicts? The contributors to this important new volume take up these questions and others as they delve beneath the turbulent surface of racial and ethnic relations in urban centers worldwide.

Contributors: Sophie Body-Gendrot, the Sorbonne and the Institute of Political Science, Paris; Harold Brackman, Simon Wiesenthal Center; James Button, U of Florida; Sharon Collins, U of Illinois, Chicago; Steven P. Erie, U of California, San Diego; Norman Fainstein, Vassar College; Cedric Herring, U of Illinois, Chicago; Michael Hodge, Georgia State U; Leslie Baham Inniss, Florida State U; Martín Sánchez Jankowski, U of California, Berkeley; Michael Kearney, U of California, Riverside; Edward Murguia, Texas A&M; Adolph Reed Jr., Northwestern U; Nestor Rodríguez, U of Houston; Bernadette Tarallo, U of California, Davis; Roger Waldinger, UCLA; and Howard Winant, Temple U.

This is a first-class collection of readings. The Bubbling Cauldron makes a significant contribution because it confronts many of the current dimensions of the debate over race, ethnicity, and class. There is no other collection that does this in such a provocative and useful way.

Raymond S. Franklin, director of the Michael Harrington Center, Queens College, CUNY, and author of Shadows of Race and Class

How can race and ethnicity be understood as questions of power? How do changes among racial and ethnic groups alter conflicts about these groups’ identities and the resultant power structure shaped by these conflicts? The contributors to this important new volume take up these questions and others as they delve beneath the turbulent surface of racial and ethnic relations in urban centers worldwide.

Michael Peter Smith is professor of community studies and development at the University of California, Davis.

Joe R. Feagin is graduate research professor in sociology at the University of Florida.

This is a first-class collection of readings. The Bubbling Cauldron makes a significant contribution because it confronts many of the current dimensions of the debate over race, ethnicity, and class. There is no other collection that does this in such a provocative and useful way.

Raymond S. Franklin, director of the Michael Harrington Center, Queens College, CUNY, and author of Shadows of Race and Class

The Bubbling Cauldron is useful because it explores major controversies confronting urban and ethnic studies. This accessible volume is a welcome attempt to harness the discussion of racial and ethnic identity to a contingent and historicized political economy.

Contemporary Sociology

The Bubbling Cauldron provides the depth of current political analyses [other books] lack. This collection of essays on various aspects of urban life is useful for political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, and other scholars interested in urban life and politics.

American Political Science Review

Smith and Feagin have compiled an excellent mix of recent theoretical and empirical studies that provide fresh insight on racial and ethnic trends in American society. Their approach, reflected in the articles they have anthologized, is to explore the process of racial and ethnic formation, especially as this is mediated by the state and other societal institutions. The Bubbling Cauldron offers a critical alternative to the reductionist tendencies that are so pronounced in the literature on race and ethnicity.

Stephen Steinberg from The Journal of American Ethnic History

A timely collection of essays on race and ethnicity in America’s cities. The essays are uniformly stimulating. The Bubbling Cauldron is a book to be added to reading lists for graduate students in race politics or urban studies.

Canadian Journal of Urban Research

In The Bubbling Cauldron, students of race and ethnic relations will find insightful essays and research articles on the dynamics of American race and ethnic relations and their complex connections to global processes.

Social Science Journal

This is an impressive collection in terms of range, depth and scholarly competence. An exciting and informative volume, full of good material and ideas.

Malcolm Harrison, CJUR

In The Bubbling Cauldron, editors Smith and Feagin have refocused the scholarly discussion of race from its emphasis on primordialist and melting-pot theories to an understanding of race as a dynamic concept that involves processes of domination, resistance, and self-definition. The volume makes clear that as urbanites witness the globalization of the economy, they must also come to terms with the ever-increasing boundaries of racial and ethnic politics. Especially important in this regard are issues of immigration and political incorporation. Also important is the extent to which the contributors to Bubbling Cauldron transcend the archaic language of black-white race relations to discuss the complexity of ethnic-cum-racial relations.

Urban Affairs Review