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. |
From inside the book
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... 2 492 END CONCLUSIONS 501 Ethnic Prejudice , Proto - Racism , and Imperialism in Antiquity 503 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 517 INDEX OF SOURCES 541 GENERAL INDEX 553 ILLUSTRATIONS • ( following page 251 ) 1. Heracles and viii CONTENTS .
... ethnic or cultural , not racial . In this book I shall argue that early forms of racism , to be called proto - racism , were common in the Graeco - Roman world . My second point in this connection is that those early forms served as ...
... ethnic prejudice , and xenophobia that are encountered in the ancient literature in Greece and Rome from the fifth ... Ethnicity , and Early Greek States , ca. 1200– 480 B.C .: An Archaeological Perspective , " in Malkin ( ed ...
... ethnic prejudice in all periods and societies in some re- spects . Consequently , I hope the book will also be of use to those interested in contemporary manifestations of discrimination , anti - semitism , and group ha- tred . The ...
... ethnic prejudice which I have seen and cited assert that it precedes Columbus and European colonialism . This is also the contem- porary popular perception . 9 Obviously , it did not exist in the modern form of a biological determinism ...