Jazz: Race and Social Change (1870-2019) explores the tremendous evolution of jazz over the past 125 years, through struggles for racial and gender equality, major demographic upheavals, startling technological innovations, economic and political turmoil, and music-business practices. Taking an expansive view of the music, the book includes such genres as ragtime, orchestral jazz, the New Orleans style, crooners, big bands, bebop, soul jazz, free jazz, fusion, acid jazz, and hip-hop jazz. It also includes interactive listening guides that strengthen students' comprehension of the material.

One of the only textbooks on the market that covers jazz to the present day, Jazz: Race and Social Change (1870-2019) provides unique social and cultural coverage of jazz's entanglement with the pursuits of racial, gender, and economic equality.