The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race: A Political History of Racial Identity - Hardcover

Baum, Bruce

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814798926 ISBN 13: 9780814798928

Publisher: NYU Press, 2006

Synopsis

The term “Caucasian” is a curious invention of the modern age. Originating in 1795, the word identifies both the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains region as well as those thought to be “Caucasian”. Bruce Baum explores the history of the term and the category of the “Caucasian race” more broadly in the light of the changing politics of racial theory and notions of racial identity. With a comprehensive sweep that encompasses the understanding of "race" even before the use of the term “Caucasian,” Baum traces the major trends in scientific and intellectual understandings of “race” from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Baum’s conclusions make an unprecedented attempt to separate modern science and politics from a long history of racial classification. He offers significant insights into our understanding of race and how the “Caucasian race” has been authoritatively invented, embraced, displaced, and recovered throughout our history.

About this title

About the Author:

Bruce Baum is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Rereading Power and Freedom in J. S. Mill.

Review:

“Add[s] a needed dimension to the study of race in political science that I hope scholars beyond the field of theory will take to heart.”
-Perspectives on Politics

“An indispensable book. The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race takes the study of whiteness to a new level both historically and theoretically. No previous study of the familiar racial category-‘white’-has attained such global breadth and analytical depth. It remedies a significant gap in the social scientific study of race, providing an intellectual history of whiteness that is both erudite and accessible.”
-Howard Winant,author of The New Politics of Race: Globalism, Difference, Justice

“In charting the course of the 'Caucasian race' from a despised, barely European peoples to a scientific classification for white identity, Bruce Baum illuminates the socially constructed nature of race and the role of science in shaping it. His analysis of the changing fortunes of this curious concept demonstrates that even scientific inquiry is deeply influenced by the social and political assumptions of its time. By showing that the Caucasian race is a product of power rather than a racial group descended from the Caucasus region, The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race makes an important contribution to the study of race and whiteness.”
-Joel Olson,author of The Abolition of White Democracy

“In racial discourse, the term ‘Caucasian’ has always had a scientific aura and a prestige elevated above that of the simpler colloquial 'white.' Bruce Baum's fascinating and extensively researched genealogy of the concept and its subsequent career provides an eye-opening history of the utter bogusness of these pretensions. As such, the book is not merely an invaluable addition to the recent ‘whiteness’ literature and a documentation of the myriad shifting possibilities of racialization, but a salutary reminder of the political economy that always underlies the category ‘race.’”
-Charles W. Mills,author of The Racial Contract

“Clearly and stylishly written and argued. . . well-supported by wide-ranging research and striking knowledge. . . . The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race ranges across centuries and continents and moves from intellectual to political and social history gracefully.”
-David Roediger,author of The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0814798926
• ISBN 13: 9780814798928
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352