The History of White People (Audible Audio Edition) Nell Irvin Painter Allyson Johnson Audible Studios Books
Download As PDF : The History of White People (Audible Audio Edition) Nell Irvin Painter Allyson Johnson Audible Studios Books
A mind-expanding and myth-destroying exploration of notions of white race-not merely a skin color but also a signal of power, prestige, and beauty to be withheld and granted selectively. Ever since the Enlightenment, race theory and its inevitable partner, racism, have followed a crooked road, constructed by dominant peoples to justify their domination of others. Filling a huge gap in historical literature that long focused on the non-white, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter guides us through more than two thousand years of Western civilization, tracing not only the invention of the idea of race but also the frequent worship of "whiteness" for economic, social, scientific, and political ends.
Our story begins in Greek and Roman antiquity, where the concept of race did not exist, only geography and the opportunity to conquer and enslave others. Not until the eighteenth century did an obsession with whiteness flourish, with the German invention of the notion of Caucasian beauty. This theory made northern Europeans into "Saxons," "Anglo-Saxons," and "Teutons," envisioned as uniquely handsome natural rulers. Here was a worldview congenial to northern Europeans bent on empire. There followed an explosion of theories of race, now focusing on racial temperament as well as skin color. Spread by such intellectuals as Madame de Stael and Thomas Carlyle, white race theory soon reached North America with a vengeance.
Its chief spokesman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, did the most to label Anglo-Saxons-icons of beauty and virtue-as the only true Americans. It was an ideal that excluded not only blacks but also all ethnic groups not of Protestant, northern European background. The Irish and Native Americans were out and, later, so were the Chinese, Jews, Italians, Slavs, and Greeks-all deemed racially alien. Did immigrations threaten the very existence of America? Americans were assumed to be white, but who among poor immigrants could become truly American?
A tortured and convoluted series of scientific explorations developed-theories intended to keep Anglo-Saxons at the top the ever-popular measurement of skulls, the powerful eugenics movement, and highly biased intelligence tests-all designed to keep working people out and down. As Painter reveals, power-supported by economics, science, and politics-continued to drive exclusionary notions of whiteness until, deep into the twentieth century, political realities enlarged the category of truly American.
A story filled with towering historical figures, The History of White People forcefully reminds us that the concept of one white race is a recent invention. The meaning, importance, and realty of this all-too-human thesis of race have buckled under the weight of a long and rich unfolding of events.
The History of White People (Audible Audio Edition) Nell Irvin Painter Allyson Johnson Audible Studios Books
The text explains, in detail, American policies and practices in regard to volunteer immigrants from (what I considered) white countries. Nell Painter reveals the deep research she conducted of this history (white people in America) in a way that reads almost like a novel. As such, it allows self-educators to benefit from traceable truth (not opinion) that was previously available only to researchers, academics, or the oral histories of the specific groups discussed.Product details
|
Tags : Amazon.com: The History of White People (Audible Audio Edition): Nell Irvin Painter, Allyson Johnson, Audible Studios: Books, ,Nell Irvin Painter, Allyson Johnson, Audible Studios,The History of White People,Audible Studios,B00D1YRWSU
People also read other books :
- The Call of the Wild Jack London 9781495977169 Books
- Tony Robbins Top 60 Life and Business Lessons from Tony Robbins (Audible Audio Edition) Antonius Houston Sean Lenhart Billionaire Mind Publishing Books
- The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel C H Dodd 9780511520334 Books
- The Titans of Ardana eBook JS Frankel
- Ena Murray Omnibus 33 Afrikaans Edition edition by Ena Murray Literature Fiction eBooks
The History of White People (Audible Audio Edition) Nell Irvin Painter Allyson Johnson Audible Studios Books Reviews
Spanning from Ancient Greece to the present, the goal of The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter goal is both simple and impossible to track the elusive definition of what it means to be a white person -- particularly to be white in America -- and do so in a readable way. In meeting those goals, Painter is remarkably successful. It is informative without being plodding, is frequently funny, and is often poignant. She does gloss over certain periods (as should be expected in a book with such a wide scope), but it rarely feels like lacking.
From the role of art in defining beauty, to measuring skulls, to studies of degenerate families and eugenics, the overall story she tells is of the use of “whiteness” as a marker that has been used to separate “us” from “them.” She takes special care to point out how frequently the definition of “us” – and therefore the definition of whiteness – shifted throughout history. As someone with some Irish roots, I was aware of some of this. No group was as big a mover from “them” to “us” as the Irish, often at the expense of new immigrants as well as those left behind in the “them” group. But seeing each new wave of immigrants working their way through the same obstacles and prejudices, and then inflict those same prejudices on others, was still startling.
Painter also spends a great deal of time on different historical figures and how they influenced our understanding of whiteness. Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Teddy Roosevelt in particular come off poorly.
The lasting impression the book left with me was one of tempered optimism. The final chapter goes into DNA sequencing as the final nail in the “science” of “racial science.” In short, there is very little that divides us biologically. Skin is only skin deep, as it were. But the question remains as skin color becomes less important as a marker, will we evolve past the fear of “them?” Or will we simply invent new ways to keep “us” divided? We can hope, but the hard work and the real change will come only from striving.
Tough read but some fascinating ideas and facts.
Thoughtful and thorough, this is an enlightening look at what white people have wrought.
This careful, scholarly, proBlack book tears up the poison that whiteness inflicts on Black Women's lives.
Is painful necesary work in this struggle to remove whiteness, and its genociding,
from our daily lives and future.
Love
Well-written history of the social construct of race and its impact on throughout our short US history. If you read one book this year... this is the one!
This is a dense read, and it's important to remain aware that the book is ultimately about whiteness in the US. If you aren't in it for the long haul, don't start it. Even as a lover of history, geography, and politics (all discussed in this book), my mind would get overwhelmed and I'd have to take breaks. Chapter 27 is OVERWHELMINGLY relevant to the last 10 or so years of racisl justice fights, and is certainly still relevant. After that chapter, the last few seem to be a little rushed or incomplete (likely because she is speaking about the present). It ends with looking forward, and assumptions people have made about the future of the United States as it becomes more brown, but doesn't give the concluding feeling that people generally want from a book. This should honestly be treated like a textbook, and be included in curricula.
I have to admit that I was skeptical of such a book and didn't believe it would teach me much that I didn't already know. I have a pretty good background in history, especially western civilization, from classical Greece to modern U.S. history. I have been a skeptic on the subject of race almost since I left high school. But Nell Painter won me over almost from the first page of this remarkable book. She did her homework, and she knows how to tell a story. She shows that notions of race are both ancient and also socially and culturally constructed. She also reveals how this conception of a "white" race emerges and becomes so important in Europe and the U.S. She reveals the silliness of race science but also places it in historical context that helps readers understand why otherwise intelligent individuals might be seduced by such notions as skull measurements, cranial capacity, skin tone, facial features, intellectual capacities, etc. She demonstrates how famous and respected figures likeThomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson were seduces by a common desperate desire to be on the superior side of a perceived "racial" and class divide, and how someone like Franz Boas could stray from the received opinions of his day when the evidence became less and less convincing. In short, the book is an education in a subject that many of us thought we knew something about. This really is a fresh look at race and notions of "whiteness" that deserves a wide audience, and it looks like that's what's happening. First you have to understand how something came about before you can really see how truly disturbing and misguided it is. She might have called her book the myth of white people, but that would have given away too much of the payoff of discovering all the foolishness that lies behind the very conception of a "white" race of humans.
The text explains, in detail, American policies and practices in regard to volunteer immigrants from (what I considered) white countries. Nell Painter reveals the deep research she conducted of this history (white people in America) in a way that reads almost like a novel. As such, it allows self-educators to benefit from traceable truth (not opinion) that was previously available only to researchers, academics, or the oral histories of the specific groups discussed.
0 Response to "⇒ PDF Gratis The History of White People (Audible Audio Edition) Nell Irvin Painter Allyson Johnson Audible Studios Books"
Post a Comment