Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., and K. A. Appiah, eds. Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, New York: Amistad, 1993.

An extensive collection of reviews and literary critical analyses of Morrison's work from many of the foremost scholars of African-American literature.

Jordan, Winthrop. White Man's Burden: The Historical Origins of Racism in the United States, New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

This short but sophisticated book explores how the idea of race and racial difference took root in the United States and formatively shaped national history.

Taylor-Guthrie, Danille, ed. Conversations with Toni Morrison, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994.

In this collection of previously published interviews Morrison discusses many aspects of her life and work, as well as racial politics and American and African-American literary traditions.