Race: The History of an Idea in AmericaOxford University Press, 1997 M08 14 - 544 pages When Thomas Gossett's Race: The History of an Idea in America appeared in 1963, it explored the impact of race theory on American letters in a way that anticipated the investigation of race and culture being conducted today. Bold, rigorous, and broad in scope, Gossett's book quickly established itself as a critical resource to younger scholars seeking a candid, theoretically sophisticated treatment of race in American cultural history. Here, reprinted without change, is Gossett's classic study, making available to a new generation of scholars a lucid, accessibly written volume that ranges from colonial race theory and its European antecedents, through eighteenth- and nineteenth- century race pseudoscience, to the racialist dimension of American thought and literature emerging against backgrounds such as Anglo- Saxonism, westward expansion, Social Darwinism, xenophobia, World War I, and modern racial theory. Featuring a new afterword by the author, an introduction by series editors Shelley Fisher Fishkin and Arnold Rampersad, and a bibliographic essay by Maghan Keita, this indispensable book, whose first edition helped change the way scholars discussed race, will richly reward scholars of American Studies, American Literature, and African-American Studies. |
Contents
3 | |
II Englands American Colonies and Race Theories | 17 |
III EighteenthCentury Anthropology | 32 |
IV NineteenthCentury Anthropology | 54 |
V The Teutonic Origins Theory | 84 |
VI The Study of Language and Literature | 123 |
VII Race and Social Darwinism | 144 |
VIII The Social Gospel and Race | 176 |
18651915 | 287 |
XIII Imperialism and the AngloSaxon | 310 |
XIV World War I and Racism | 339 |
XV Racism in the 1920s | 370 |
XVI The Scientific Revolt Against Racism | 409 |
XVII The Battle Against Prejudice | 431 |
Notes | 461 |
Bibliographic Essay | 503 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adams Ameri American Anglo Anglo-Saxon anthropologist argued argument Aryan attempts biological blood Boas Boston Celts character Christian civilization colonists color culture Darwin declared democracy developed England English Essay ethnic Europe European evolution explain fact Frank Norris Franz Boas German Gobineau Henry Herbert Baxter Adams heredity heroes historians human races Ibid idea immigrants Indians inferior innate institutions intellectual intelligence Irish Jews John Josiah Strong labor land language Letters literature London lynching Madison Grant mental modern moral nation native native American nature Negroes nineteenth century Nordic Norris North Nott novel Owen Wister political prejudice quoted race differences race theories racial racism Roosevelt Saxon says scientific skulls slavery Social Darwinism Social Darwinist Social Gospel society South southern species Spencer superior tests Teutonic origins thought tion tribes United University W. E. B. DuBois Ward William Wister writing wrote York
References to this book
Eliminating Racism: Profiles in Controversy Phyllis A. Katz,Dalmas A. Taylor No preview available - 1988 |