Race: A History Beyond Black and White (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780689865541)

From historian Marc Aronson comes a thought-provoking, revelatory young adult nonfiction history of the origins of racism.

Race. You know it at a glance: he's black; she's white. They're Asian; we're Latino. Racism. I'm better; she's worse. Those people do those kinds of things. We all know it's wrong to make these judgments, but they come faster than thought. Why? Where did those feelings come from? Why are they so powerful? Why have millions been enslaved, murdered, denied their rights because of the color of their skin, the shape of their eyes?

This astounding book traces the history of racial prejudice in Western culture back to ancient Sumer and beyond. Greeks divided the world into civilized and barbarian, medieval men wrote about the traits of monstrous men until, finally, Enlightenment scientists scrap all those mythologies and come up with a new one: charts spelling out the traits of human races.

Throughout most of human history, slavery had nothing to do with race. In fact, the idea of race itself did not exist in the West before the 1600s. But once the idea was established and backed up by "scientific" theory, its influence grew with devastating consequences, from the appalling lynchings in the American South to the catastrophe known as the Holocaust in Europe.

Author: Marc Aronson
ISBN-10: 0689865546
ISBN-13: 9780689865541
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Language: English
Published: 11/06/2007
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.48lbs
Size: 9.08h x 6.28w x 1.02d

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 8.8
Point Value: 11
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 119444 / Race: A History Beyond Black and White

Award: Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens - Recommended

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Review - Children 10/15/2007 pg. 1102
Booklist 10/15/2007 pg. 41
New York Times Book Review 11/11/2007 pg. 38
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 11/01/2007 pg. 127 - Recommended
Publishers Weekly 12/17/2007 pg. 53
Horn Book Magazine 11/01/2007 pg. 692
School Library Journal 12/01/2007 pg. 148
Voice of Youth Advocates 02/01/2008 pg. 553 - Recommended - Better Than Most
Multicultural Review 06/01/2008 pg. 83