Race: The History of an Idea in America

by Thomas F. Gossett

Overview

When Tom Gosset's Race: The History of an Idea in America appeared more than a generation ago, it explored the impact of race theory on literature in a way that anticipated the entire current scholarly discourse on the subject. Though it has gone out of print, it has never been rendered obsolete. Its reprinting is a boon to younger scholars in particular who are unfamiliar with its rich presentation of fact and its clear, efficient analysis, from which so much later theorizing has developed. With a new afterword by and about the author, and an introduction by series editors Arnold Rampersad and Shelley Fisher Fishkin, this edition should find a wide readership among young scholars and students working in African-American, literary, and cultural studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195097771
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/14/1997
Series:	Race and American Culture
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.60(d)
Lexile:	1450L (what's this?)

About the Author

Thomas F. Gossett is Professor Emeritus of English at Wake Forest University

Table of Contents

I.	Early Race Theories	3
II.	England's American Colonies and Race Theories	17
III.	Eighteenth-Century Anthropology	32
IV.	Nineteenth-Century Anthropology	54
V.	The Teutonic Origins Theory	84
VI.	The Study of Language and Literature	123
VII.	Race and Social Darwinism	144
VIII.	The Social Gospel and Race	176
IX.	Literary Naturalism and Race	198
X.	The Indian in the Nineteenth Century	228
XI.	The Status of the Negro: 1865-1915	253
XII.	Anti-Immigration Agitation: 1865-1915	287
XIII.	Imperialism and the Anglo-Saxon	310
XIV.	World War I and Racism	339
XV.	Racism in the 1920s	370
XVI.	The Scientific Revolt Against Racism	409
XVII.	The Battle Against Prejudice	431
	Notes	461
	Bibliographic Essay	503
	Index	511

Editorial Reviews

Gossett's benchmark title gets a facelift for the 1990s and beyond thanks to the inclusion of a new preface, foreword, and bibliographic essay by Gossett and other scholars. This remains "recommended for academic and public libraries" (LJ 4/1/64).

Library Journal

"Out of print for too long, Gossett's Race is now restored to us just in time for today's readers of critical race theory, cultural studies, and African American Studies. A critical race theorist who always historicizes, Gossett traces the intellectual history of race as an American idea that travels both transnationally, through the circuits of racial science and empire, and across disciplines, from 18th and 19th-century anthropology to the study of language and literature. Gossett's material terrain extends from U. S. literary nationalism, to representations of the Indian in the nineteenth century, to World War I and racism, and concludes with a look at anti-racist counter-discourses in science, social movements, and expressive culture. A 1960s American Studies classic for cultural studies at the millennium, Race may just succeed in bringing U. S. cultural studies back to the future."—Susan Gilman, University of California, Berkeley

From the Publisher