Sign-In
Cart
Who's Black and Why?: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race
Paperback
General European HistoryGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesGeneral Sociology
Publisher Price: $19.95
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0674295455
ISBN13: 9780674295452
Publisher: Belknap Press
Published: Feb 1 2024
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.00
Height: 1.10 Width: 5.60 Depth: 8.80
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780674295452
Publisher: Belknap Press
Published: Feb 1 2024
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.00
Height: 1.10 Width: 5.60 Depth: 8.80
Language: English
2023 PROSE Award in European History
An invaluable historical example of the creation of a scientific conception of race that is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.--Washington Post Reveals how prestigious natural scientists once sought physical explanations, in vain, for a social identity that continues to carry enormous significance to this day.
--Nell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People A fascinating, if disturbing, window onto the origins of racism.
--Publishers Weekly To read [these essays] is to witness European intellectuals, in the age of the Atlantic slave trade, struggling, one after another, to justify atrocity.
--Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States In 1739 Bordeaux's Royal Academy of Sciences announced a contest for the best essay on the sources of blackness. What is the physical cause of blackness and African hair, and what is the cause of Black degeneration, the contest announcement asked. Sixteen essays, written in French and Latin, were ultimately dispatched from all over Europe. Documented on each page are European ideas about who is Black and why. Looming behind these essays is the fact that some four million Africans had been kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic by the time the contest was announced. The essays themselves represent a broad range of opinions, which nonetheless circulate around a common theme: the search for a scientific understanding of the new concept of race. More important, they provide an indispensable record of the Enlightenment-era thinking that normalized the sale and enslavement of Black human beings. These never previously published documents survived the centuries tucked away in Bordeaux's municipal library. Translated into English and accompanied by a detailed introduction and headnotes written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Andrew Curran, each essay included in this volume lays bare the origins of anti-Black racism and colorism in the West.
--Publishers Weekly To read [these essays] is to witness European intellectuals, in the age of the Atlantic slave trade, struggling, one after another, to justify atrocity.
--Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States In 1739 Bordeaux's Royal Academy of Sciences announced a contest for the best essay on the sources of blackness. What is the physical cause of blackness and African hair, and what is the cause of Black degeneration, the contest announcement asked. Sixteen essays, written in French and Latin, were ultimately dispatched from all over Europe. Documented on each page are European ideas about who is Black and why. Looming behind these essays is the fact that some four million Africans had been kidnapped and shipped across the Atlantic by the time the contest was announced. The essays themselves represent a broad range of opinions, which nonetheless circulate around a common theme: the search for a scientific understanding of the new concept of race. More important, they provide an indispensable record of the Enlightenment-era thinking that normalized the sale and enslavement of Black human beings. These never previously published documents survived the centuries tucked away in Bordeaux's municipal library. Translated into English and accompanied by a detailed introduction and headnotes written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Andrew Curran, each essay included in this volume lays bare the origins of anti-Black racism and colorism in the West.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Gates, Henry Louis
Also in
General Sociology
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
From $14.99
Transformation from Below? White Suburbia in the Transformation of Apartheid South Africa to Democracy
Scheidegger, Ursula
Paperback
$40.70
Games Against Nature: An Eco-Cultural History of the Nunu of Equatorial Africa
Harms, Robert
Paperback
$41.99
Making Capitalism: The Social and Cultural Construction of a South Korean Conglomerate
Janelli, Roger L.
Yim, Dawnhee
Hardcover
$140.00
Unfuck Your Brain: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, and Triggers
Harper, Faith G.
Paperback
From $8.99
This Is What You Just Put in Your Mouth?: From Eggnog to Beef Jerky, the Surprising Secrets
Di Justo, Patrick
Paperback
$19.00
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
Alberta, Tim
Hardcover
From $22.99
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Davis, Angela Y.
Paperback
$14.36
The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope
Andrés, José
World Central Kitchen
Hardcover
$31.50
Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See
Bosker, Bianca
Hardcover
$26.10
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
Suleyman, Mustafa
Hardcover
$29.25
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--And What You Really Need to Know
Oster, Emily
Paperback
$16.20
The Lie Detectives: In Search of a Playbook for Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age
Issenberg, Sasha
Paperback
$17.10
Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics
Plitnick, Mitchell
Hill, Marc Lamont
Paperback
$17.09
All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words: Unpublished, Unvarnished, and Told by the Beatles and Their Inner Circle
Gaines, Steven
Brown, Peter
Hardcover
$28.80
Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business
Gay, Roxane
Hardcover
$27.00
Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction
Wilson, Gary
Paperback
$14.99
How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite
Balakrishnan, Chris
Wasowski, Matt
Hardcover
$27.00
Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns, and Abstractions
Grandin, Temple
Paperback
$17.10
Marriage on the Rock 25th Anniversay Edition: The Comprehensive Guide to a Solid, Healthy, and Lasting Marriage
Evans, Jimmy
Paperback
$18.99
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
Kaba, Mariame
Hayes, Kelly
Paperback
$16.16
Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
Brown, Brené
Paperback
$17.10
The Scary Book of Christmas Lore: 50 Terrifying Yuletide Tales from Around the World
Rayborn, Tim
Paperback
$16.14
The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End
Howe, Neil
Hardcover
$30.88
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
Woodard, Colin
Paperback
$16.20
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
Lukianoff, Greg
Haidt, Jonathan
Paperback
$17.10
Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Gefter, Philip
Hardcover
$28.80
El Poder del Ahora: Un Camino Hacia La Realizacion Espiritual = The Power of Now
Tolle, Eckhart
Paperback
$15.20
How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (Large Print Edition)
Brooks, David
Paperback
$30.40
Historically Black Phrases: From I Ain't One of Your Lil' Friends to Who All Gon' Be There?
Anderson, Tre'vell
Hill, Jarrett
Hardcover
$25.19
Comedy Book: How Comedy Conquered Culture-And the Magic That Makes It Work
Fox, Jesse David
Hardcover
From $19.99
The Psilocybin Mushroom Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing and Using Magic Mushrooms
Mandrake, K.
Paperback
$28.50
The Canceling of the American Mind: Cancel Culture Undermines Trust and Threatens Us All--But There Is a Solution
Lukianoff, Greg
Schlott, Rikki
Hardcover
$28.49
Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet
Lorenz, Taylor
Hardcover
$26.99
One Nation Under Blackmail - Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime That Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein, Vol.1
Webb, Whitney Alyse
Paperback
$23.70
Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do about Animals
Wasik, Bill
Murphy, Monica
Hardcover
$31.50
The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us about America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny
Strauss, William
Howe, Neil
Paperback
From $10.99
Notes from the Porch: Tiny True Stories to Make You Feel Better about the World
Greene, Thomas Christopher
Hardcover
$28.49
Norse Mythology: The Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes Handbook: From Vikings to Valkyries, an Epic Who's Who in Old Norse Mythology
Fuller-Shafer, Kelsey A.
Hardcover
$16.14
Before It's Gone: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change in Small-Town America
Vigliotti, Jonathan
Hardcover
$26.99
The Burning of the World: The Great Chicago Fire and the War for a City's Soul
Berg, Scott W.
Hardcover
$28.80
The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind
Kearney, Melissa S.
Hardcover
$23.75
The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired and Why We Need to Fight Back Now
Schellmann, Hilke
Hardcover
$27.00
Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea
Hunt-Hendrix, Leah
Taylor, Astra
Hardcover
$27.00
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Herman, Edward S.
Chomsky, Noam
Paperback
$20.90
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
Perry, Imani
Paperback
From $11.99
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters
Nichols, Tom
Paperback
$17.99
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Levitt, Steven D.
Dubner, Stephen J.
Paperback
$18.04
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Higginbotham, Adam
Paperback
$19.94
They Came for the Schools: One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America's Classrooms
Hixenbaugh, Mike
Hardcover
$30.88
I Could Be Wrong, But I Doubt It: Why Jesus Is Your Greatest Hope on Earth and in Eternity
Robertson, Phil
Hardcover
$27.54
Walkable City (Tenth Anniversary Edition): How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time
Speck, Jeff
Paperback
$18.00
Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class
Davis, Allison
Gardner, Mary R.
Gardner, Burleigh B.
Paperback
$20.00
Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics
Plitnick, Mitchell
Hill, Marc Lamont
Hardcover
$24.69