Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Western Idea of Race: From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

The Western Idea of Race: From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

Schaub, Jean-Frédéric
Sebastiani, Silvia
Richmond Mouillot, Miranda

Hardcover

Medieval & Renaissance HistoryGeneral European History

PREORDER - Expected ship date April 13, 2027

ISBN10: 0674300823
ISBN13: 9780674300828
Publisher: Belknap Press
Published: Apr 13 2027
Pages: 496
Language: English

Two eminent historians offer a groundbreaking study of the origins of race in early modern Western Europe, tracing its development through Enlightenment justifications of global hierarchy and colonization.

Race is often thought of as an invention of the eighteenth century. In this ambitious book, the first to provide a complete origin story of race, Jean-Frédéric Schaub and Silvia Sebastiani trouble that notion, tracing the concept of race back to the roots of the Renaissance and following its evolution in succeeding centuries. Crucially, they show how race, racialization, and antisemitism developed alongside--rather than despite--the political and scientific advances of the period. Major Enlightenment thinkers advanced universalism while also taking part in debates about human origins, miscegenation, and the genealogy of race, at once advocating for equality and dividing human beings into rigid hierarchies.

Beginning with early modern conceptions of blood purity among nobles, Schaub and Sebastiani reveal how supposed impurity developed into an elaborate system of classification that justified notions of racial superiority. Initially, impurity was exemplified by Jewish and Muslim conversos in Iberia; later, impurity became a trait associated with New World populations of mixed Spanish, African, and Indigenous ancestry. Examining the creation of racial markers, Schaub and Sebastiani demonstrate how emerging demarcations and structures of belonging were implemented across empires, often with ambiguity or contradictions.

Covering more than three hundred years of transatlantic history and drawing on diverse sources, including scientific papers, artworks, and philosophical treatises, The Western Idea of Race is a revelatory account. It lays bare one of the key foundations of modern social inequality.

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