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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... interesting to see how it then split into two parts , a Latin- and a Greek - speaking empire , where westerners and easterners could exhibit fierce animosity towards one another . Again , the assumption is that Greek and Roman texts ...
... interesting , related phenomena which cannot be included in this discussion . To give just one example : Aristotle assumes that all creatures which are biologically perfect reproduce themselves.30 Those which he classifies as imperfect ...
... interesting , this is not immediately relevant here . Ancient historians , such as Helmut Berve , who supported the German Nazi or Italian fascist regime and accepted their ideologies , did not trace ancient predecessors of the racist ...
... interesting in itself to trace what might be the ancient origins of racist attitudes . However , this should not lead us to ignore other forms of prejudice . Nowadays many Euro- pean countries have movements hostile to immigrant ...
... interesting that the rejection of stereotyping in the first sentence itself is justified by a stereotype : to stereotype Venetians would be offensive to those proud people , it is claimed , as if it is legitimate to stereotype the ...