Racial Formation in the United States

Omi and Winant have revised their classic book to foreground a new understanding of race as a master category and to present new arguments about the importance of social movements. A great book is now even better!

- George Lipsitz, Black Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

In keeping with the foundational idea that race is formed and re-formed in different eras, locations, and situations, Omi and Winant have substantially revised their classic treatise on the subject to better address the "racial formation" of the early 21st century. From realms as far apart as claims of neuro-imaging hard-wired racism to a fierce critique of post-racial ideologies, the authors have successfully taken on the immensely challenging task of explaining how these recent developments fit into ever-morphing structures of racial domination. In so doing, this new edition sustains the book’s stature as an enduring contribution to theories of social stratification.

-Troy Duster, Sociology, University of California Berkeley

This book retains all of the vitality of its initial edition. It is an important work that will solidify the authors’ well deserved reputations.

-Lani Guinier, Harvard University Law School

Michael Omi and Howard Winant have substantially revised their classic work Racial Formation in the United States for the ‘post-Obama’ age. They argue in compelling detail that civil rights organizing ignited the 1960s insurgencies among women and sexual minorities, and they conclude that the central recognition of identity politics – that ‘the personal is political’ – has been ‘the single most enduring contribution of the anti-racist movement.’ Omi and Winant deftly engage with recent critical writings on neoliberalism, on the body, on intersectionality, and on the relationship between structural racism and racial identity as experienced in daily life. At the same time, they retain their jargon-free, accessible writing style, adding new historical and theoretical syntheses that will make this an ideal text for undergraduate courses in race, ethnicity, history, political theory, and democracy in America. There are many new intellectual riches in this third edition. Racial Formation in the United States is an indispensable book for understanding how race persists in an ostensibly ‘post-racial’ nation."

-Angela P. Harris, University of California, Davis

Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s Racial Formation in the United States is a landmark contribution to our understanding of the way race is created, transformed, and permeates every aspect of our daily lives. There is no other scholarly work on racial formation that has had a wider and more lasting impact on various academic fields than this canonical book. The publication of its third edition promises to extend its scholarly impact to new heights. It has fundamentally changed the way we understand race and racism in the United States.

-Tomas Almaguer, Latina/o Studies, San Francisco State University, and author of Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in the California