The invention of racism in classical antiquity /
Isaac, Benjamin H.,
The invention of racism in classical antiquity / Benjamin Isaac. - 1 online resource (xiv, 563 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographical references (pages 517-539) and indexes.
pt. 1. Stereotypes and Proto-Racism: Criteria For Differentiation -- Ch. 1. Superior and Inferior Peoples -- Ch. 2. Conquest and Imperialism -- Ch. 3. Fears and Suppression -- pt. 2. Greek and Roman Attitudes Towards Specific Groups: Greek and Roman Imperialism -- Ch. 4. Greeks and the East -- Ch. 5. Roman Imperialism and the Conquest of the East -- Ch. 6. Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Syrians -- Ch. 7. Egyptians -- Ch. 8. Parthia/Persia -- Ch. 9. Roman Views of Greeks -- Ch. 10. Mountaineers and Plainsmen -- Ch. 11. Gauls -- Ch. 12. Germans -- Ch. 13. Jews.
There 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. Magisterial in scope and scholarship, and engagingly written, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity further suggests that an understanding of ancient attitudes toward other peoples sheds light not only on Greco-Roman imperialism and the ideology of enslavement (and the concomitant integration or non-integration) of foreigners in those societies, but also on the disintegration of the Roman Empire and on more recent imperialism as well. The first part considers general themes in the history of discrimination; the second provides a detailed analysis of proto-racism and prejudices toward particular groups of foreigners in the Greco-Roman world. The last chapter concerns Jews in the ancient world, thus placing anti-Semitism in a broader context
In English.
9781400849567 (electronic bk.) 140084956X (electronic bk.)
10.1515/9781400849567 doi
22573/ctt4902hv JSTOR
To 1500
Racism--History--Greece--To 1500.
Racism--Rome.
Racisme--Rome.
POLITICAL SCIENCE--Essays.
POLITICAL SCIENCE--Government--General.
POLITICAL SCIENCE--Government--National.
POLITICAL SCIENCE--Reference.
SOCIAL SCIENCE--Discrimination & Race Relations.
Racism.
Rasizm--Grecja--do 15 w.
Rasizm--Rzym.
Greece.
Rome (Empire)
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
History.
DF135 / .I83 2006eb
320.560938
The invention of racism in classical antiquity / Benjamin Isaac. - 1 online resource (xiv, 563 pages) : illustrations
Includes bibliographical references (pages 517-539) and indexes.
pt. 1. Stereotypes and Proto-Racism: Criteria For Differentiation -- Ch. 1. Superior and Inferior Peoples -- Ch. 2. Conquest and Imperialism -- Ch. 3. Fears and Suppression -- pt. 2. Greek and Roman Attitudes Towards Specific Groups: Greek and Roman Imperialism -- Ch. 4. Greeks and the East -- Ch. 5. Roman Imperialism and the Conquest of the East -- Ch. 6. Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Syrians -- Ch. 7. Egyptians -- Ch. 8. Parthia/Persia -- Ch. 9. Roman Views of Greeks -- Ch. 10. Mountaineers and Plainsmen -- Ch. 11. Gauls -- Ch. 12. Germans -- Ch. 13. Jews.
There 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. Magisterial in scope and scholarship, and engagingly written, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity further suggests that an understanding of ancient attitudes toward other peoples sheds light not only on Greco-Roman imperialism and the ideology of enslavement (and the concomitant integration or non-integration) of foreigners in those societies, but also on the disintegration of the Roman Empire and on more recent imperialism as well. The first part considers general themes in the history of discrimination; the second provides a detailed analysis of proto-racism and prejudices toward particular groups of foreigners in the Greco-Roman world. The last chapter concerns Jews in the ancient world, thus placing anti-Semitism in a broader context
In English.
9781400849567 (electronic bk.) 140084956X (electronic bk.)
10.1515/9781400849567 doi
22573/ctt4902hv JSTOR
To 1500
Racism--History--Greece--To 1500.
Racism--Rome.
Racisme--Rome.
POLITICAL SCIENCE--Essays.
POLITICAL SCIENCE--Government--General.
POLITICAL SCIENCE--Government--National.
POLITICAL SCIENCE--Reference.
SOCIAL SCIENCE--Discrimination & Race Relations.
Racism.
Rasizm--Grecja--do 15 w.
Rasizm--Rzym.
Greece.
Rome (Empire)
Electronic books.
Electronic books.
History.
DF135 / .I83 2006eb
320.560938