The Invention of Racism in Classical AntiquityThere was racism in the ancient world, after all. This groundbreaking book refutes the common belief that the ancient Greeks and Romans harbored "ethnic and cultural," but not racial, prejudice. It does so by comprehensively tracing the intellectual origins of racism back to classical antiquity. Benjamin Isaac's systematic analysis of ancient social prejudices and stereotypes reveals that some of those represent prototypes of racism--or proto-racism--which in turn inspired the early modern authors who developed the more familiar racist ideas. He considers the literature from classical Greece to late antiquity in a quest for the various forms of the discriminatory stereotypes and social hatred that have played such an important role in recent history and continue to do so in modern society. |
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... considered . I shall discuss opinions about foreign nations , such as Greek ideas of Persia , and opinions about peoples incorporated into the Roman Empire , such as Roman ideas about Greeks . This is all the more necessary because so ...
... considered below . For the fourth century A.d .: Alain Chauvot . Opinions ro- maines face aux barbares au ive siècle ap . J.-C. ( Paris , 1998 ) . The necessary parameters for the study of this subject have been clearly set forth in a ...
Benjamin Isaac. noted , it is usually considered unjustifiable to speak of ancient racism . None of the works on racism and ethnic prejudice which I have seen and cited assert that it precedes Columbus and European colonialism . This is ...
... considered although the expectation that they would turn black was exactly the premise of the theory , white being considered the norm and black a form of degeneration . ' Buffon , it has been observed , was probably the first to employ ...
... considered as a tumultuous assemblage of barbarous and independent individuals , who obey no laws but those of passion and ca- price . " This approach echoes that of the ancient texts : the treatise Airs , Waters , Places and the works ...