Scan barcode
A review by justinlife
History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
This book is a lot. Like a lot a lot. It's dense and contains a narrative of how whiteness came to be and the major players that contributed to it.
I was expecting something far more violent, but it was really tracing the history of whiteness and how that has affected the culture. You get to see the philosophers, artists, and anthropologists over the centuries try to justify its existence and how they came to their conclusions.
It's a great book to read, but I'd recommend a chapter at a time. The audiobook was also very helpful. This was well researched and you can see the course that was being plotted. What's interesting about it is that so many people who are considered white today wouldn't have fit that classification a century or two ago. The power dynamics and how that affected everyone involved.
I was expecting something far more violent, but it was really tracing the history of whiteness and how that has affected the culture. You get to see the philosophers, artists, and anthropologists over the centuries try to justify its existence and how they came to their conclusions.
It's a great book to read, but I'd recommend a chapter at a time. The audiobook was also very helpful. This was well researched and you can see the course that was being plotted. What's interesting about it is that so many people who are considered white today wouldn't have fit that classification a century or two ago. The power dynamics and how that affected everyone involved.