The American Misadventure of Race , by Scott L. Malcomson. HAS written an odd and oddly appropriate book. Yet Malcomson's treatment of the subject seems to defy order. He attempts to cover the entire historical career of race within the borders of what we now call the United States, and the result sprawls over centuries and continents-as the sources of American ideas of race have done.
Academics are a territorial breed.
Without academic credentials, he has the gall to be extremely well read in several academic subspecialities and periods. To add insult to injury, he writes a lot better than those who have attempted syntheses of the subject before. To understand race, Malcomson is telling us, we need to see how our world differs from the pre-racial world. Indeed they could not. The first explorers' and settlers' prosperity, if not their lives, depended on their not being racist.