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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... sources in Greek and Latin of the period concerned , while taking due account of the peculiarities of each literary genre . The visual arts undoubtedly might make a contribution , but this type of evidence is so different in kind that ...
... sources . For Greece see Edith Hall , Inventing the Barbarian : Greek Self - Definition through Tragedy ( Oxford , 1989 ) ; Jonathan M. Hall , Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity ( Cambridge , 1997 ) ; T. Long , Barbarians in Greek ...
... sources as needed . Herodotus is the first author to devote extensive discussion to the relationship between Greeks and non - Greeks and this must therefore be our first major point of reference . It is far harder to determine where to ...
... sources whatever the language because the Jews never became part of mainstream Greek and Roman society . It is not my aim to compare the Graeco - Roman world with contemporary and non - Western societies . The literature on these ...
... sources du racisme et des nationalismes ( Paris , 1971 ) ; translation : The Aryan Myth ( New York , 1996 ) ; Le Racisme ( Paris , 1976 ) ; The His- tory of Antisemitism . 4 vols . ( London , 1974-1986 ) ; George L. Mosse , Toward the ...