The History of White People (2010 original; edició 2011)

Telling perhaps the most important forgotten story in American history, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter guides us through more than two thousand years of Western civilization, illuminating not only the invention of race but also the frequent praise of “whiteness” for economic, scientific, and political ends. A story filled with towering historical figures, The History of White People closes a huge gap in literature that has long focused on the non-white and forcefully reminds us that the concept of “race” is an all-too-human invention whose meaning, importance, and reality have changed as it has been driven by a long and rich history of events. 70 black-and-white illustrations ~Amazon

This book is very dense, but if you're willing to put in the time and brainpower, it's worth the read. ( )

My abandonment is not a commentary on the book's quality at all. I think it will make a really interesting read. Right now, I'm trying to get through a library stack AND preview books for research, and this just does not happen to dovetail with my specific area of research at the moment. The few chapters I did read were interesting, and I look forward to returning to it.

My reading experience was DESTROYED by the publicity for this book: from the title, which must have been imposed by an agent or editor, to the silly levels of praise ("mind-expanding and myth-destroying"). That's a shame, because the book is okay for what it is: a recounting of the various ways people have defined 'white people,' in America. Any time the book leaves America, it becomes tedious at best; the opening chapters on the ancients are unnecessary; the enormous chapter on de Stael is entirely unnecessary and more than a little irritating. But it will be well worth your time to start at chapter 9, and then, if you care to, go back to read about the ties between beauty and whiteness in the 18th century. ( )

I found this book very tough going. There was too much of what felt like the wrong kind of detail, which left the information I was interested in buried in minutia. I finally gave up about a quarter of the way through because it was so dense in ways that didn't interest me. ( )