Author Description

When Thomas Gossett's Race: The History Of An Idea In America Appeared In 1963, It Explored The Impact Of Race Theory On American Letters In A Way That Anticipated The Investigation Of Race And Culture Being Conducted Today. Bold, Rigorous, And Broad In Scope, Gossett's Book Quickly Established Itself As A Critical Resource To Younger Scholars Seeking A Candid, Theoretically Sophisticated Treatment Of Race In American Cultural History. Here, Reprinted Without Change, Is Gossett's Classic Study, Making Available To A New Generation Of Scholars A Lucid, Accessibly Written Volume That Ranges From Colonial Race Theory And Its European Antecedents, Through Eighteenth- And Nineteenth- Century Race Pseudoscience, To The Racialist Dimension Of American Thought And Literature Emerging Against Backgrounds Such As Anglo- Saxonism, Westward Expansion, Social Darwinism, Xenophobia, World War I, And Modern Racial Theory. Featuring A New Afterword By The Author, An Introduction By Series Editors Shelley Fisher Fishkin And Arnold Rampersad, And A Bibliographic Essay By Maghan Keita, This Indispensable Book, Whose First Edition Helped Change The Way Scholars Discussed Race, Will Richly Reward Scholars Of American Studies, American Literature, And African-american Studies.