4th Edition

Race in North America Origin and Evolution of a Worldview

By Audrey Smedley, Brian D. Smedley Copyright 2012
    402 Pages
    by Routledge

    402 Pages
    by Routledge

    This sweeping work traces the idea of race for more than three centuries to show that 'race' is not a product of science but a cultural invention that has been used variously and opportunistically since the eighteenth century. Updated throughout, the fourth edition of this renowned text includes a compelling new chapter on the health impacts of the racial worldview, as well as a thoroughly rewritten chapter that explores the election of Barack Obama and its implications for the meaning of race in America and the future of our racial ideology.

    PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION Introduction 1. Some Theoretical Considerations Race as a Modern Idea Ideas, Ideologies, and Worldviews The Social Reality of Race in America On the Relationship Between Biology and Race The Primordialists' Argument Race as a Worldview: A Theoretical Perspective Race and Ethnicity: Biology and Culture Notes 2. The Etymology of the Term Race in the English Language Notes 3. Antecedents of the Racial Worldview The Age of European Exploration The Rise of Capitalism and the Transformation of English Society Social Organization and Values of Early Capitalism English Ethnocentrism and the Idea of the Savage English Nationalism and Social Values in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Hereditary Social Identity: The Lesson of Catholic Spain Notes 4. The Growth of the English Ideology About Human Differences in America Earliest Contacts The Ensuing Conflicts The Backing of God and Other Justifications for Conquest The New Savages Notes 5. The Arrival of Africans and Descent into Slavery The First Africans The Descent into Permanent Slavery Was There Race Before Slavery? Why the Preference for Africans? The Problem of Labor A Focus on Physical Differences and the Invention of Social Meanings Notes 6. Comparing Slave Systems: The Significance of "Racial" Servitude The Background Literature and the Issues of Slavery The Nature of Slavery A Brief History of Old World Slavery Colonial Slavery Under the Spanish and Portuguese Uniqueness of the English Experience of Slavery The Significance of Slavery in the Creation of Race Ideology Notes 7. Eighteenth-Century Thought and the Crystallization of the Ideology of Race Social Values of the American Colonists Nature's Hierarchy Dominant Themes in North American Racial Beliefs Anglo-Saxonism: The Making of a Biological Myth Thomas Jefferson and the American Dilemma Notes 8. Antislavery and the Entrenchment of a Racial Worldview A Brief History of Antislavery Thought The Proslavery Response The Sociocultural Realities of Race and Slavery The Priority of Race over Class Notes 9. The Rise of Science and Scientific Racism Early Classifications of Humankind The Impact of Eighteenth-Century Classifications Notes 10. Growth of the Racial Worldview in Nineteenth-Century America Polygeny vs. Monogeny: The Debate over Race and Species The Unnatural Mixture Scientific Race Ideology in the Judicial System White Supremacy Immigrants and the Extension of the Race Hierarchy Notes 11. Science and the Expansion of Race Ideology Beyond the United States The Continuing Power of Polygenist Thinking European Contributions to the Ideology of Race Herbert Spencer and the Rise of Social Darwinism The Measurement of Human Differences: Anthropometry Typological Models of Races The Measurement of Human Differences: Psychometrics Extension of Race Ideology Overseas Notes 12. Twentieth-Century Developments in Race Ideology Social Realities of the Racial Worldview Psychometrics: The Measuring of Human Worth by IQ The Eugenics Movement The Racial World of the Nazis The Continuing Influence of Racial Ideology in Science Notes 13. Changing Perspectives on Human Variation in Science The Decline of the Idea of Race as Biology in Science Physical Anthropology and Attempts to Transform the Meaning of Race Population Genetics Is There a Genetic Basis for Race? The Ecological Perspective: Human Variations as Products of Adaptation The Genetic Conception of Human Variation Monogeny Reconsidered: The Nonproblem of Race Mixture Notes 14. Dismantling the Folk Idea of Race: Transformations of an Ideology The Meaning and Legacy of Race as Identity The Quest for a Mixed-Race Census Category Barack Obama and the Meaning of Race The Future of the Racial Worldview The Persistence of Racial Thinking Notes 15. The Health and Other Consequences of the Racial Worldview The Extent of Racial Health Disparities in the United States The Causes of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in the United States Conclusion Notes REFERENCES INDEX

    Biography

    Audrey Smedley