1st Edition

Race and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Ages of Territorial and Market Expansion, 1840-1900

Edited By E. Nathaniel Gates Copyright 1998

    First Published in 1998. Explores the concept of "race"  The term "race," which originally denoted genealogical or class identity, has in the comparatively brief span of 300 years taken on an entirely new meaning. In the wake of the Enlightenment it came to be applied to social groups. This ideological transformation coupled with a dogmatic insistence that the groups so designated were natural, and not socially created, gave birth to the modern notion of "races" as genetically distinct entities. The results of this view were the encoding of "race" and "racial" hierarchies in law, literature, and culture.

    How "racial" categories facilitate social control
    The articles in the series demonstrate that the classification of humans according to selected physical characteristics was an arbitrary decision that was not based on valid scientific method. They also examine the impact of colonialism on the propagation of the concept and note that "racial" categorization is a powerful social force that is often used to promote the interests of dominant social groups. Finally, the collection surveys how laws based on "race" have been enacted around the world to deny power to minority groups.

    A multidisciplinary resource
    This collection of outstanding articles brings multiple perspectives to bear on race theory and draws on a wider ranger of periodicals than even the largest library usually holds. Even if all the articles were available on campus, chances are that a student would have to track them down in several libraries and microfilm collections. Providing, of course, that no journals were reserved for graduate students, out for binding, or simply missing. This convenient set saves students substantial time and effort by making available all the key articles in one reliable source.

    Authoritative commentary
    The series editor has put together a balanced selection of the most significant works, accompanied by expert commentary. A general introduction gives important background information and outlines fundamental issues, current scholarship, and scholarly controversies. Introductions to individual volumes put the articles in context and draw attention to germinal ideas and major shifts in the field. After reading the material, even a beginning student will have an excellent grasp of the basics of the subject.

    Chapter 1 The White Man’s Burden; Chapter 2 Initial Contacts: Redeeming Texas from Mexicans, 1821–1836; Chapter 3 The Origins of Anti-Mexican Sentiment in the United States, Raymund A. Paredes; Chapter 4 “Scarce more than apes.” Historical Roots of Anglo American Stereotypes of Mexicans in the Border Region; Chapter 5 Mexican Opinion, American Racism, and the War of 1846, Gene M. Brack; Chapter 6 The Slavery Problem in the Diplomacy of the American Civil War, Kinley J. Brauer; Chapter 7 Sambo and the Heathen Chinee: Californians’ Racial Stereotypes in the Late 1870s, Luther W. Spoehr; Chapter 8 Frederick Douglass and American Diplomacy in the Caribbean, Merline Pitre; Chapter 9 Racism and The Imperialist Campaign; Chapter 10 Imperialism and The Anglo-Saxon; Chapter 11 The Anti-Imperialists, the Philippines, and the Inequality of Man, Christopher Lasch; Chapter 12 Race and American Expansion in Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1895–1905, Philip W. Kennedy; Chapter 13 The Racial Overtones of Imperialism as a Campaign Issue, 1900; Chapter 14 Black Americans and the Quest for Empire, 1898–1903, Willard B. GatewoodJr; Chapter 15 David Fagen: An Afro-American Rebel in the Philippines, 1899–1901, Michael C. Robinson, Frank N. Schubert; Chapter 16 Booker T. Washington and the White Man’s Burden, Louis R. Harlan; Chapter 17 Opposition of Negro Newspapers to American Philippine Policy, 1899–1900 * During 1899–1900 there were 150 Negro newspapers, mostly weeklies, in existence. The author was able to examine 30 of these in the Schomburg Collection, New York City. Not one newspaper file was complete for 1899 and 1900. In half the cases, e.g., the Boston Courant, a Particularly valuable paper for this study, only one issue is extant., George P. Maries; Chapter 18 Racial Anglo-Saxonism and the American Response to the Boer War, Stuart Anderson; Chapter 19 Black Americans and the Boer War, 1899–1902, Willard B. Gatewood;

    Biography

    Micheal L. Kreen, University of Miami