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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... slavery and the gradual emancipation of the blacks in that country . I assume therefore that it is illuminating to study ideas and attitudes in their own right . Here we touch upon a further major aim of this work . It is assumed here ...
... Slavery in the Middle East : An Historical Enquiry ( New York and Oxford , 1990 ) , chapter 2 , at p . 17 , accepts for " race " what he describes as " current American usage . " This , he says , exclusively denotes " such major ...
... slavery in the Middle East . Banton , Race Relations , 8 , referring also to W. Vickery and M. Opler , “ A Redefinition of Prejudice for Purposes of Social Science Research , " Human Relations 1 ( 1948 ) , 419–428 . For discussion of ...
... Slavery in the Middle East , note 1 on p . 109f . relates that in 1940 the British Army recognized the relevance for its recruits of " four and only four races — English , Scottish Welsh , and Irish . " Race Relations Act 1976 , ss 1 ...
... slaves and free men in Rome , but it definitely expresses a feeling , held by many Romans — but not necessarily a feeling held in that form by the poet himself — that the slaves of the rich humiliate free - born Romans . Again , as ...