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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... various cultures , adopting various different shapes . It continues and will continue to be with us . If we recognize only one variety that belongs to a restricted period , we may fail to recognize it as it emerges in an altered guise ...
... various authors in search of concepts who did not necessarily agree with one another and developed differ- ent and often contradictory ideas . In this stage racism remained a fairly moder- ate doctrine , based on environmentalism and ...
... various dimensions and features of social life and culture : religion , occupa- tion , modes of life and conflict , and language . Emphasis and values may change over time , but we are always concerned with the ways one group saw ...
... various peoples who inhabit an Empire will help in clarifying the underlying feelings , ambitions , and fears of those who main- tain , expand , or lose an empire . It is therefore not the intention of this book to provide an analysis ...
... various stages of this develop- ment . The descendants of those vanished peoples who had become inhabitants of integrated provinces were regarded in various ways which it will be interest- ing to trace . How did Roman aristocrats view ...