Susser, Ida : Hunter College / City University of New York
Ida Susser is Professor of Anthropology at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of
New York, and was the founding President of the Society for the Anthropology of North America. Her books include
AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean (edited with George Bond, Joan Vincent, and John Kreniske, 1997), Medical Anthropology
and the World System (co-authored with Merrill Singer and Hans Baer, 1997), and Norman Street: Poverty and Politics
in an Urban Community (1982).
Patterson, Thomas C. : University of California
Thomas C. Patterson is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Riverside. His books include Change
and Development in the Twentieth Century (1999), Inventing Western Civilization (1997), Making Alternative Histories
(edited with Peter R. Schmidt, 1995), and Race, Racism, and the History of U.S. Anthropology (edited with Lee Baker,
1994).
Summary
Cultural Diversity in the United States: A Critical Reader is an unprecedented collection of contemporary writings
on the central issues of cultural diversity in the United States by some of anthropology's most notable scholars.
Comprised of over 20 newly commissioned chapters and other pieces, and sponsored by the American Anthropological
Association, this volume offers a wide range of perspectives from anthropologists as a means of understanding how
the discipline can provide critical contexts for the exploration of cultural diversity in the United States. Moreover,
the breadth of anthropological inquiry collected here represents a remarkable opportunity for those studying or
teaching this vital issue.
The contributors to this landmark reader rethink diversity, identity politics, and multiculturalism, and provide
tools for the analysis of critical political issues in the United States today. Important areas of discussion include:
re-examining U.S. social and political history; establishing a framework for the understanding of inequality; and
confronting simplistic images of diversity in an effort to enrich and deepen understanding of difference.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Yolanda Moses.
Preface: Ida Susser.
Introductions: Ida Susser, Thomas C. Patterson, Steven F. Arvizuu.
Part I: Biological and Medical Issues.
Part II: Historical Development of Contemporary Diversity.
Part III: Diversity: Contemporary Issues, Contemporary Conflicts.
Part IV: Overviews of Diversity in The United States.
Afterword: Louise Lamphere.
Index.
