The sociology of race and ethnicity is a controversial field, and yet one which was central to the making of sociology in the first half of the twentieth century. At the opening of the twentieth century there were already various sociologically or anthropologically inclined treatments of the subject of race, but they were either not particularly scientific or were generalized on the basis of contemporary philosophical or ethnocentric prejudices. Two key sources of influence then led to a change of direction in this field first, the work of empirical researchers, and second, the emerging body of work by black sociologists. With a new introduction by the editor placing the works in their social and theoretical context, this collection reprints key texts representing differing perspectives on the sociology of race, as well as examples of the smaller body of works which comprised early sociology.