Racism: A Short History

(Paperback, Revised edition)

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Are antisemitism and white supremacy manifestations of a general phenomenon Why didn't racism appear in Europe before the fourteenth century, and why did it flourish as never before in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Why did the twentieth century see institutionalized racism in its most extreme forms Why are egalitarian societies particu

Reviews

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2003 "In Racism: A Short History, written in ... [Fredrickson's] characteristically crisp, clear prose, he draws both on a wide range of recent work by others and on nearly half a century of his own writings on immigration, race and nationalism, in the United States and elsewhere, to provide us with a masterly--though not uncontroversial--synthesis... The book is worth reading just for its pathbreaking attempt to tell the stories of anti-Semitism and white supremacy together, while insisting both on their inter-connections and their differences."--Kwame Anthony Appiah, The New York Times Book Review "Fredrickson deftly combines intellectual with social and political history to explain the emergence of racism and its recent decline. Learned and elegant."--William H. McNeill, The New York Review of Books "Fredrickson [stands] out from a number of distinguished collegues [because of] his continuing urge to widen the comparative framework he uses to try to understand why these relations have developed as they did. Racism: A Short History is his most drastic venture to date--a brisk positioning of Southern racial domination within world history as a whole."--John Dunn, Times Literary Supplement "An erudite comparison of racism and anti-Semitism throughout Western history... Fredrickson offers a scholarly but compelling and accessible narrative."--Publishers Weekly "Fredrickson's book should be celebrated. The chief reason is the text itself. One of only a handful of attempts to cover Western attitudes towards race comprehensively, Fredrickson's Racism is by far the most concise and lucid. It is also the most balanced... [W]hat ultimately makes Fredrickson's book so valuable is its original vision of the major racisms--its view of them as belonging to a coherent historical narrative... Reviewers often apply the term 'path-breaking' to works that simply trim back a few errant branches. But Fredrickson's book really is path-breaking."--Paul Reitter, The Nation "In this incisive and thoughtful essay on the nature and historical trajectory of racism in the modern world, Fredrickson's magisterial command of his subject is on display as he provides a concise overview of racism's rise, climax, and retreat."--Choice "Racism, in short, comes with a history, and it is to scrutinize racism's history and reasoning that Fredrickson decided to write this brisk, intense, incisive probe of the concept and its implications. The result is the best, most erudite introduction to racism available."--Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer "Racism: A Short History is a tour de force within this genre. Richly footnoted and elegantly written, the book is a model of clarity and sophisticated analysis."--Milton Shain, Kleio

Author Bio

George M. Fredrickson (1934-2008) was the Edgar E. Robinson Professor of U.S. History at Stanford University. His many books include Diverse Nations, Black Liberation, and White Supremacy. Albert M. Camarillo is the Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor of American History at Stanford University.