Among the purposes stated to be served by this book of readings are: the description of several ethnic communities in the Detroit metropolitan area; a questioning of what is meant by ethnics, ethnic groups, and ethnicity; and a look at what ethnicity means when ethnics interact in the institutional world. The document is divided into five sections which are separate entities and do not depend on each other. Part I outlines what ethnicity and ethnic groups are all about. Part II illustrates three different perspectives or ways at looking at ethnic groups. Part III focuses on six different areas within the ethnic world -- that of the person, community, culture, institutions, politics, and economics. Part IV centers around the analysis of five different Detroit ethnic communities. Part V provides data sources for the reader who is interested in quantitative information or who wishes to explore more fully a specific ethnic group. The book is considered not to be a comprehensive statement about ethnic communities in Detroit. Difficulties encountered in generation of the book were seen to include the acquisition of short pieces concerning recent Detroit ethnic communities, the length and datedness of some documents, the scarcity of research on ethnic communities in Detroit, and the failure of some manuscripts to describe the people. (Author/AM)