Race: The History of an Idea in the West (Woodrow Wilson Centre Press)
A remarkable achievement, and one of the most important books ever published on this subject.(New Statesman)In a sweeping and ambitious survey of the concept of race from the ancient world to the 20th century, Ivan Hannaford argues that the modern notion of the term is misconstrued.(Times Educational Supplement)This book, the life's work of its late author, Ivan Hannaford, sets out to trace the development of the concept of race—how and when it evolved—as we understand it today in western civilization... The work is enormously learned, quoting liberally from authors spanning 2,500 years and packed with insightful and nuanced readings.(David M. GoldenbergInternational Journal of the Classical Tradition)Ivan Hannaford's book is a tour de force of intellectual history. It is simultaneously a detective story, tracking down the provenance of a powerful idea, a work of meticulous textual exegesis with a decidedly breathtaking sweep, a subtle exercise in political theory, and a study in the epistemology of social science. Hannford shows how modern notions have been projected backward onto the quite different conceptions of earlier ages. He is able to pick up the first threads of racial thinking and follow them to the present. A major work of scholarship, this book is careful, bold, and wise.(Donald L. Horowitz, Duke University)