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A review by ravenofoctober
Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism, and History by Vron Ware
4.0
This book has left me with A LOT to think about and analyze. I'm not sure I'm smart enough to work through all the questions and ideas this book raises. But I found it immensely illuminating; it analyzes race, gender, and class in colonialism and imperialism in a way I haven't encountered before.
The focus is more on the overlap of class, race, and feminism in England during the 1800s and early 1900s, but of course there is a lot of overlap with America as well. I learned a great deal about Ida B. Wells that I didn't know, and many British feminists that I never learned about.
I wouldn't say the content in this book is surprising or new, but I do think Ware gave a more thorough analysis on the intersection of these three issues than I've seen elsewhere. I think the class aspect got the short shrift sometimes, but Ware admits (and I agree) that this is an extraordinarily complex topic. These five essays are meant to scratch the surface and ask why we've lost some of these details in larger feminist discussions, what effect that loss has, and how to counteract it.
I was surprised, though, to realize how many artifacts from these movements and time periods are really still alive today--and some haven't even changed all that much from when they first emerged. (I'm talking about America in this regard, as Parts 4 and 5 in this book address a lot of American history with lynching in particular.) I've never been foolhardy enough to think America has gotten over its racism problem, but to see such clear lines between where it originate almost (or over?) two centuries ago and now was a wake-up call for me. I wish this were emphasized more in history classes in school, how much of modern America really has its foundations in the racism of the pre- and post-Civil War era. Instead that's glossed over in schools, as if it's truly all in the past instead of just below the surface (and not even that far below) of modern America.
The focus is more on the overlap of class, race, and feminism in England during the 1800s and early 1900s, but of course there is a lot of overlap with America as well. I learned a great deal about Ida B. Wells that I didn't know, and many British feminists that I never learned about.
I wouldn't say the content in this book is surprising or new, but I do think Ware gave a more thorough analysis on the intersection of these three issues than I've seen elsewhere. I think the class aspect got the short shrift sometimes, but Ware admits (and I agree) that this is an extraordinarily complex topic. These five essays are meant to scratch the surface and ask why we've lost some of these details in larger feminist discussions, what effect that loss has, and how to counteract it.
I was surprised, though, to realize how many artifacts from these movements and time periods are really still alive today--and some haven't even changed all that much from when they first emerged. (I'm talking about America in this regard, as Parts 4 and 5 in this book address a lot of American history with lynching in particular.) I've never been foolhardy enough to think America has gotten over its racism problem, but to see such clear lines between where it originate almost (or over?) two centuries ago and now was a wake-up call for me. I wish this were emphasized more in history classes in school, how much of modern America really has its foundations in the racism of the pre- and post-Civil War era. Instead that's glossed over in schools, as if it's truly all in the past instead of just below the surface (and not even that far below) of modern America.