This introduction to recent developments in algebraic combinatorics illustrates how research in mathematics actually progresses. The author recounts the dramatic search for and discovery of a proof of a counting formula conjectured in the late 1970s: the number of n x n alternating sign matrices, objects that generalize permutation matrices. While it was apparent that the conjecture must be true, the proof was elusive. As a result, researchers became drawn to this problem and made connections to aspects of the invariant theory of Jacobi, Sylvester, Cayley, MacMahon, Schur, and Young; to...

Asian Americans are emerging as a political force and yet their politics have not been systematically studied by either social scientists or politicians. Asian American politics transcend simple questions of voting behavior and elective office, going all the way back to early immigration laws and all the way forward to ethnic targeting. For the first time, this book brings together original sources on key topics influencing Asian American politics, knit together by expert scholars who introduce each subject and place it in context with political events and the greater emerging literature....

"You're fired " became the catch phrase in the spring of 2004 as NBC's The Apprentice captured public and media attention. Even though The Apprentice was not exclusively about race, it communicated and reinforced racial messages that are part and parcel of the dominant American ideology. No matter which minority group is represented, the media in America offer the same bill of fare: first, exclusion; followed by stereotyping that makes a sharp distinction between "good" minority members and "bad" ones; and finally, the telling of stories that justify racial inequality in American society....