
Race
Antiquity and Its Legacy
Denise Eileen McCoskey(Author)
Bloomsbury Academic (Publisher)
Published on 28. February 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
264 pages
978-1-350-12500-1 (ISBN)
Description
How do different cultures think about race? In the modern era, racial distinctiveness has been assessed primarily in terms of a person's physical appearance. But it was not always so. As Denise McCoskey shows, the ancient Greeks and Romans did not use skin colour as the basis for categorising ethnic disparity. The colour of one's skin lies at the foundation of racial variability today because it was used during the heyday of European exploration and colonialism to construct a hierarchy of civilizations and then justify slavery and other forms of economic exploitation. Assumptions about race thus have to take into account factors other than mere physiognomy. This is particularly true in relation to the classical world. In fifth century Athens, racial theory during the Persian Wars produced the categories 'Greek' and 'Barbarian', and set them in brutal opposition to one another: a process that could be as intense and destructive as 'black and 'white' in our own age. Ideas about race in antiquity were therefore completely distinct but as closely bound to political and historical contexts as those that came later.
This provocative book boldly explores the complex matrices of race - and the differing interpretations of ancient and modern - across epic, tragedy and the novel. Ranging from Theocritus to Toni Morrison, and from Tacitus and Pliny to Bernal's seminal study Black Athena, this is a powerful and original new assessment.
This provocative book boldly explores the complex matrices of race - and the differing interpretations of ancient and modern - across epic, tragedy and the novel. Ranging from Theocritus to Toni Morrison, and from Tacitus and Pliny to Bernal's seminal study Black Athena, this is a powerful and original new assessment.
Reviews / Votes
An admirable compendium. * Classics for All *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 215 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
342 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-12500-1 (9781350125001)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
03/2021
1st Edition
I.B. Tauris
€19.99
Available for download

E-Book
03/2021
1st Edition
I.B. Tauris
€19.99
Available for download
Previous edition

Book
01/2012
I.B. Tauris
€141.36
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Person
Denise McCoskey is Associate Professor of Classics at Miami University, Ohio. She has written extensively on the politics of race and gender in antiquity.