This collection of new essays edited by Frank Shuffelton enters into one of the most topical and energetic debates on our time - the subject of ethnicity. With a focus on the eighteenth century and colonial American values, till now overlooked in the debate, Shuffelton's collection offers agile and original yet scholarly readings of `race' from some of the strongest voices in academia, ranging from interpretations of early captivity narratives by Native Americans and African Americans to representation among the Pennsylvania `Dutch'. With a three-part structure moving from questions of race and ethnicity to varieties of ethnic representation, and finally to individual confrontations (e.g. Phillis Wheatley and the Black American Revolution), this volume sheds light on the confrontations of ethnically different peoples, launches a timely, full-scale investigation of the construction of American culture, and should enhance graduate school curricula across America.