The History of White People
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3.5 • 15 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Bestseller
This terrific new book…[explores] the ‘notion of whiteness,’ an idea as dangerous as it is seductive." —Boston Globe
Telling perhaps the most important forgotten story in American history, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter guides us through more than two thousand years of Western civilization, illuminating not only the invention of race but also the frequent praise of “whiteness” for economic, scientific, and political ends. A story filled with towering historical figures, The History of White People closes a huge gap in literature that has long focused on the non-white and forcefully reminds us that the concept of “race” is an all-too-human invention whose meaning, importance, and reality have changed as it has been driven by a long and rich history of events.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Who are white people and where did they come from? Elementary questions with elusive, contradictory, and complicated answers set historian Painter's inquiry into motion. From notions of whiteness in Greek literature to the changing nature of "white" identity "in direct response to Malcolm X and his black power successors," Painter's wide-ranging response is a who's who of racial thinkers and a synoptic guide to their work. Her commodious history of an idea accommodates Caesar; Saint Patrick, "history's most famous British slave of the early medieval period"; Madame de Sta l; and Emerson, "the philosopher king of American white race theory." Painter (Sojourner Truth) reviews the diverse cast in their intellectual milieus, linking them to one another across time and language barriers. Conceptions of beauty ("ideals of white beauty firmly embedded in the science of race"), social science research, and persistent North/South stereotypes prove relevant to defining whiteness. "What we can see," the author observes, "depends heavily on what our culture has trained us to look for." For the variable, changing, and often capricious definition of whiteness, Painter offers a kaleidoscopic lens.
Customer Reviews
Untold history of the ever-evolving definition of “white people”
Fantastic read and well researched.