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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... mean that racism did not exist before the twentieth century ? In fact there is a consensus that it originated in the nineteenth century and has its intellectual roots in that century , although some scholars give it a somewhat longer ...
... means that there was an extraordinary discrepancy between their image of Russia as a country and reality . It is therefore useful in itself to consider the views of other peoples held by countries at war and their self - perception ...
... mean by the terms race , racism , racialism , and racial prejudice.36 Other terms which require precise definitions are ethnic groups , 35 Galatians 3.27–9 : ὅσοι γὰρ εἰς Χριστὸν ἐβαπτίσθητε , Χριστὸν ἐνεδύσασθε · οὐκ ἔνι Ἰουδα- ῖος ...
... mean by prejudice in general , and racial prejudice in particular . Since this is a historical study the methods ... means I have to work with the concept of race as devised by racists . I accept the opinion of those who assert that ...
... mean to imply , of course , that Graeco - Roman antiquity is not " western . " It is western , but it is not modern . If it can be shown that there are forms of racism in nonwestern culture , it follows that it may also have existed in ...