The Origins of Racism in the West

Is it possible to speak of western racism before the eighteenth century? The term 'racism' is normally only associated with theories, which first appeared in the eighteenth century, about inherent biological differences that made one group superior to another. Here, however, leading historians argue that racism can be traced back to the attitudes of the ancient Greeks to their Persian enemies and that it was adopted, adjusted and re-formulated by Europeans right through until the dawn of the Enlightenment. From Greek teachings on environmental determinism and heredity, through medieval concepts of physiognomy, down to the crystallization of attitudes to Indians, Blacks, Jews and Gypsies in the early modern era, they analyse the various routes by which racist ideas travelled before maturing into murderous ideologies in the modern western world. In so doing this book offers a major reassessment of the place of racism in pre-modern European thought.

Author: Miriam Eliav-Feldon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 08/22/2013
Pages: 348
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.03lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9781107687264

About the Author
Eliav-Feldon, Miriam: - Miriam Eliav-Feldon is Professor of Early-Modern European History at Tel-Aviv University. Her previous publications include Realistic Utopias: The Ideal Imaginary Societies of the Renaissance (1982), The Protestant Reformation (1997) and The Printing Revolution (2000).Isaac, Benjamin: - Benjamin Isaac is Fred and Helen Lessing Professor of Ancient History at Tel-Aviv University. His books include The Limits of Empire: the Roman Army in the East (1990), The Near East under Roman Rule (1998) and The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (2004).Ziegler, Joseph: - Joseph Ziegler is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of General History, University of Haifa. He is the author of Medicine and Religion c. 1300: The Case of Arnau de Vilanova (1998).

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