Immigrants come to the United States from all over Latin America in search of better lives. They obtain residency status, find jobs, pay taxes and they have children who are American citizens by birth; yet decades may go by before they seek citizenship for themselves or become active participants in the American political process. Between Two Nations examines the lack of political participation among Latin American immigrants in the United States to determine why so many remain outside the electoral process.

Charles Mills makes visible in the world of mainstream philosophy some of the crucial issues of the black experience. Ralph Ellison's metaphor of black invisibility has special relevance to philosophy, he argues, whose demographic and conceptual whiteness has long been a source of wonder and complaint to racial minorities. Mills points out the absence of any philosophical narrative theorizing and detailing race's centrality to the recent history of the West, such as feminists have articulated for gender domination.

At What Point do we Become Canadian? Do we Ever Lose our Ethnic identity completely? The Japanese-Canadian community is one of the smallest ethnic communities in Canada. And yet its 66,000 members form a visible minority. In 1988 the redress of injustices to citizens interned during World War II marked the end of a long fight that had united Japanese Canadians. The community has sensed a weakening of ties ever since.

The Nisei, or second generation of Japanese Canadians who lived through the war, have scattered across the nation. Their children, the Sansei or third generation, have been fully integrated into mainstream society. As Tomoko Makabe discovered in her interviews with thirty-six men and twenty-eight women, the Sansei don't speak Japanese, they don't marry Japanese Canadians, and they're pretty much indifferent about being Japanese Canadian. Many are upwardly mobile: they live in middle-class neighbourhoods, are well educated, and work as professionals. It's easy to speculate that the community will vanish with the fourth generation. But Makabe has some reservations. Ethnic identity can be sustained in more symbolic ways. With support and interest from the community at large, aspects of the structures, institutions, and identities of an ethnic group can become part of the dominant culture. In the end, it may be non-Japanese Canadians who need this group and encourage it to carry on its traditions.

The Canadian Sansei is as much a reflection on history, culture, and identity in general as it is an account of third-generation Japanese Canadians. Makabe's explorations cut a path to discovery for every ethnic group in Canada and throughout the world.

After long weeks of boring, perhaps spoiled sea rations, one of the first things Spaniards sought in the New World was undoubtedly fresh food. Probably they found the local cuisine strange at first, but soon they were sending American plants and animals around the world, eventually enriching the cuisine of many cultures.

Drawing on original accounts by Europeans and native Americans, this pioneering work offers the first detailed description of the cuisines of the Aztecs, the Maya, and the Inca. Sophie Coe begins with the basic foodstuffs, including maize, potatoes, beans, peanuts, squash, avocados, tomatoes, chocolate, and chiles, and explores their early history and domestication. She then describes how these foods were prepared, served, and preserved, giving many insights into the cultural and ritual practices that surrounded eating in these cultures. Coe also points out the similarities and differences among the three cuisines and compares them to Spanish cooking of the period, which, as she usefully reminds us, would seem as foreign to our tastes as the American foods seemed to theirs. Written in easily digested prose, America's First Cuisines will appeal to food enthusiasts as well as scholars.

When "A History of the Mexican-American People" was first published in 1977 it was greeted with enthusiasm for its straightforward, objective account of the Mexican-American role in US history. Since that time the text has been used in high school and university courses such as United States History, Chicano History and the history of the American southwest. This new, revised edition of the book brings up to date the history of these little known people and their continuing struggle for social justice. The opening section covers the years of exploration and northward Spanish expansion into what is the present-day United States. The book then scans the North American continent in the 19th century, highlighting Mexico's achievement of independence from Spain and consequent loss of its northernmost territories to the US. Samora examines the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American War, US violations of the treaty, and contemporary repercussions. The third part of the book evaluates the impact of the Mexican Revolution on both sides of the border and the effect of mass migrations from Mexico. Samora then tackles the complex and decisive events from the mid-1950s to the present such as the problems of transition from rural to urban life, the question of discrimination and the search for civil rights. This new edition contains a revised chapter on Chicano contributions to art, literature, music and theatre, and a completely new chapter on the religious life of Mexican-Americans. A bibliography of Chicano literature covering the past 50 years is also included.

Rodriguez's acclaimed first book, Hunger of Memory raised a fierce controversy with its views on bilingualism and alternative action. Now, in a series of intelligent and candid essays, Rodriguez ranges over five centuries to consider the moral and spiritual landscapes of Mexico and the US and their impact on his soul.

Like Race Matters and Playing in the Dark, The House That Race Built is a cutting-edge work that confronts, honestly and passionately, the most critical issues facing American culture today along the fissure of race. In these essays, brought together by the scholar Wahneema Lubiano, some of today's most respected intellectuals share their ideas on race, power, gender, and society.

The authors, including Cornel West, Angela Y. Davis, and Toni Morrison, argue that we have reached a crisis of democracy represented by an ominous shift toward a renewed white nationalism in which racism is operating in coded, quasi-respectable new forms. They urge us to recognize this fact and to work toward destroying the old, destructive patterns of racial dominion forever.