This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the linkages between racism and nationalism at both a conceptual level and through case studies of the mobilisation of nationalism. It explains the role of racist and anti-racist movements and ideologies in a variety of national settings. The book provides an overview of theoretical and historical efforts to situate the analysis of contemporary racisms as well as to explore some facets of contemporary racisms in global perspective. It aims to an exploration of the state and political institutions in structuring contemporary expressions of racism. The most notable example of the limits on existing conversations can be found in the ways in which theoretical and empirical debates about race and racism in the United States and in Europe rarely engage with each other in a substantial manner.