Table Of ContentHistoricizing
Race
i
ii
Historicizing
Race
MARIUS TURDA AND
MARIA SOPHIA QUINE
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY
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Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2018
© Marius Turda and Maria Sophia Quine
Marius Turda and Maria Sophia Quine have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Authors of this work.
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accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN : HB : 978-1-4411-8424-5
PB : 978-1-4411-4367-9
e PDF : 978-1-4411-8016-2
eBook: 978-1-4411-5824-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
Names: Turda, Marius, author. | Quine, Maria Sophia, author.
Title: Historicizing race / Marius Turda and Maria Sophia Quine.
Description: London; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2017032614 (print) | LCCN 2017049175 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781441158246 (ePUB) | ISBN 9781441180162 (ePDF) |
ISBN 9781441184245 (hardback) | ISBN 9781441143679 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Race–History. | BISAC: HISTORY / Modern / General.
Classifi cation: LCC HT1507 (ebook) | LCC HT1507 .T87 2018 (print) | DDC 305.8009–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017032614
Cover design: Adriana Brioso
Cover image: Our Goddess of Liberty. United States, 1870.
(Courtesy of the Library of Congress, L C - USZ 62–136241)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
Introduction 1
1 History 13
2 Culture 33
3 Nation 49
4 Genealogy 71
5 Science 87
Conclusions 107
Notes 117
Bibliography 157
Index 183
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project originates in a separate, but shared interest in the history of
race and racism. For much of the 1990s and fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst
century, Maria Sophia Quine taught an undergraduate course on evolutionary
science and race at Queen Mary, University of London, both alone and
occasionally, and much more enjoyably, with Daniel Pick. One of the core
aims of that course was to introduce students to new and interesting
historical examples and case-s tudies. In England, most university courses on
race and racism focus on Britain, France, and Germany alone; it seemed
then and seems still today very important to try to broaden and deepen
understanding of the entirety of the European and international experience
of race and racism. Another intention was to bring new life into the fi eld of
political science which is called “nationalism studies” by exploring the
connections between constructions of race and nation in new ways.
In the autumn of 2014, Marius Turda began teaching an undergraduate
course at Oxford Brookes University on the history of race and racism. His
concern has been to introduce students to the vast historical, sociological,
philosophical, and anthropological material that has characterized the
development of the idea of race in the modern world. The shape and contents
of this book refl ect the desire of the co-a uthors to redress some of the
shortcomings in the historical literature and current syllabi. We would like
to move away from highly specialized debates, found in such segregated
fi elds as the history of anthropology, the history of science, the history of
ideas and nationalism studies, and be more interdisciplinary and integrative
in our approach. We hope to present the material in such a way that is
attractive to a student who is interested as much in history as in philosophy,
science, and politics. At the same time, we have consciously chosen not to
limit our gaze to the past alone. Though we are both historians, we have
tried to pose important questions about the continuing and perplexing
presence of ideas of race in our lives.
The book itself began before the co-a uthorship started. Marius had been
ruminating about writing a book “On Race” for some time and would like
to express his gratitude fi rst to Claire Lipscomb, who has now left
Bloomsbury, but who never gave up on the project. It is mainly due to her
insistence, support, and patience that this book is published today.
Both Marius and Maria Sophia would like to thank Emma Goode, also
at Bloomsbury, who was always tremendously helpful, generous, and
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii
understanding whenever we ran into diffi culties and missed deadlines. We
are grateful to Paul King, our copy editor, who has laboured diligently and
effi ciently over the entire book.
Marius is also very grateful to Mark Hardy, Thomas Loughlin, Lisa Pine,
Patrícia Ferraz de Matos, Karim Murji, Chloe Hadjimatheou, Simon J.
Wilson, Tudor Georgescu, and Mark Galt for their critical readings of the
manuscript and their attentive comments. Maria Sophia would like to
express her most heartfelt thanks to Deirdre Storey, Lucy Blake, Rachel
Long, Sarah Gelpke, and Shirin Syed, all wild and wise “wimmin,” who
persistently enquired for over a year about the progress of the book and
courageously awaited and endured her sometimes despairing replies. We are
blessed to have such good friends. Authorship is never an easy process; co-
authorship can be impossible at times. Nonetheless, we are both aware of
the special gift that is intellectual partnership and feel that this book is a true
melding of ideas and styles, rather than the single-a uthored chapters that we
had initially discussed. That our friendship is still intact is also testament to
its strengths and to our tenacity.
This book benefi tted from the intellectual environment provided by the
School of History, Philosophy, and Culture at Oxford Brookes University.
Marius shared his thoughts and ideas with colleagues across the university,
including Roger Griffi n, Tom Crook, Mariama Sheriff, Graham van Wyk,
Christiana Payne, and Joanne Begiato. Marius thanks them all for their
encouragement and support. Social anthropologist Jeremy MacClancy
convened a seminar on anthropology in the spring of 2015 and he was
generous enough to invite Marius to discuss the fi rst draft of the book.
Marius extends his very warm thanks to him. Now ensconced as Senior
Research Fellow in the Centre for Medical Humanities at Oxford Brookes,
Maria Sophia also benefi ts from the community and conviviality found
there.
Personal bonds are just as sustaining as scholarly ones. Last but not least,
Marius would like to express his deepest thanks to his family and his parents.
They have always been there for him and, particularly so, during the last
stages of this book. Maria Sophia would like to dedicate this endeavour to
Sam Quine-Church and Luke Haughton, in thanks for their many words of
encouragement and acts of kindness during the course of writing this book.
The occasional cocktail and glass of Gavi helped too.
London and Norwich
July 2017
viii
Introduction
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. 1
The defi nition of race has been the subject of a prolonged debate for which,
perhaps, there is no satisfactory solution. As recently noted by sociologists
Karim Murji and John Solomos “what is interesting about much of the
literature about race and racism is the absence of commonly agreed
conceptual tools or even a common framework about the general parameters
of races and racism as fi elds of study.” 2 Nothing in this area of research,
then, is clearly defi ned or securely labelled. Such imprecision, it has to be
recognized, further complicates the attempt to explain why people continue
to believe that races are real, notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence to
the contrary which is provided by evolutionary biologists, population
geneticists, and other scientists working in disparate fi elds today. When
encountered in daily conversations, race predominately refers to a group
of people who share common descent and genealogy and whose biological
and social realities have been shaped by culture and environment. A standard
description of race therefore includes both biological and cultural
determinants.
Perhaps more than any other idea in the history of human culture, race is
imbued with a great deal of responsibility. It is not just another abstract
concept with little social and political impact outside academia or the
university. During the time of its ascendancy as an organizational principle
of society, throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the idea of
race has fundamentally changed the history of many countries, individuals,
and communities across the world. It was a source of both national self-
esteem and national disgrace, particularly during the Second World War.
Many peoples have been oppressed, marginalized, and killed for not
belonging to the “right” race. Notwithstanding this painful history, racial
stereotypes continue to exist in contemporary society and various
representations of race still inhabit and invade our lives in disturbing ways.
1
