OK, I'm sitting on the floor in front of my bookshelves, and piles of as-yet-unshelved books are next to me Since we just moved, everything's out of order so I know I am going to forget some good ones. But:
* Orlando Patterson - Slavery and Social Death, The Ordeal of Integration, and Rituals of Blood * Noel Ignatiev - How the Irish Became White * Matt Wray & Annalee Newitz - White Trash: Rcae and Class in America (anthology, some essays are problematic but most are outstanding) * I second Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks * The superb Margaret Anderson-Patricia Hill-Collins anthology Race, Class, and Gender * C.L.R. James' Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In - the story of how the book was written is as instructive as James' brilliant analysis itself. * Todorov's The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other * Golden & Shreve's anthology Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race * Ruth Frankenberg's White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness * Bernal Diaz del Castillo's firsthand Conquistadorial account, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico * Las Casas, In Defense of the Indians * Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative * Yen Le Espiritu's Asian American Women and Men * Said's Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism * The fascinating, several-book debate between Marshall Sahlins and Gananath Obeyesekere: Sahlins starts with Islands of History, Obeyesekere counters with The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and Sahlins rather shrilly rebuts with How "Natives" Think (About Captain Cook, for Example Not only are the texts themselves well-written and really interesting to read, they underscore the disconnect between detached eurocentric academia and the more direct experience of postcolonial subjects (even academic ones) * Linebaugh & Rediker's must-read The Many-Headed Hydra * then I have a LOT of books on colonialism, trade, and how the European and American aristocracy counted on the slave trade and its resultant boom in tea, sugar and other previously luxury goods to save them from their own lower classes. Sweetness and Power is a prime example of those texts.
Damn, I know I have a lot more but they're all buried in these endless shelves!
Very much looking forward to other people's suggestions - I am overdue for some race-related reading materials. In particular I am interested in more texts detailing the construction and maintenance of whiteness. Anybody have some good ones?
they underscore the disconnect between detached eurocentric academia and the more direct experience of postcolonial subjects (even academic ones)
I'm going to have to look at those, but it sounds like they might be a little heavy. I've been bingeing on academia so this looks like a summer of knitting...and finishing up a human rights commission report that I started last month.
* Orlando Patterson - Slavery and Social Death, The Ordeal of Integration, and Rituals of Blood
* Noel Ignatiev - How the Irish Became White
* Matt Wray & Annalee Newitz - White Trash: Rcae and Class in America (anthology, some essays are problematic but most are outstanding)
* I second Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks
* The superb Margaret Anderson-Patricia Hill-Collins anthology Race, Class, and Gender
* C.L.R. James' Mariners, Renegades and Castaways: The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live In - the story of how the book was written is as instructive as James' brilliant analysis itself.
* Todorov's The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other
* Golden & Shreve's anthology Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race
* Ruth Frankenberg's White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness
* Bernal Diaz del Castillo's firsthand Conquistadorial account, The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico
* Las Casas, In Defense of the Indians
* Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative
* Yen Le Espiritu's Asian American Women and Men
* Said's Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism
* The fascinating, several-book debate between Marshall Sahlins and Gananath Obeyesekere: Sahlins starts with Islands of History, Obeyesekere counters with The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Mythmaking in the Pacific, and Sahlins rather shrilly rebuts with How "Natives" Think (About Captain Cook, for Example Not only are the texts themselves well-written and really interesting to read, they underscore the disconnect between detached eurocentric academia and the more direct experience of postcolonial subjects (even academic ones)
* Linebaugh & Rediker's must-read The Many-Headed Hydra
* then I have a LOT of books on colonialism, trade, and how the European and American aristocracy counted on the slave trade and its resultant boom in tea, sugar and other previously luxury goods to save them from their own lower classes. Sweetness and Power is a prime example of those texts.
Damn, I know I have a lot more but they're all buried in these endless shelves!
Very much looking forward to other people's suggestions - I am overdue for some race-related reading materials. In particular I am interested in more texts detailing the construction and maintenance of whiteness. Anybody have some good ones?
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I'm going to have to look at those, but it sounds like they might be a little heavy. I've been bingeing on academia so this looks like a summer of knitting...and finishing up a human rights commission report that I started last month.
Thanks. This will be mailed to my inbox now. ;p
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Still, when you feel ready to read, I promise an eventful experience.
mwaah.
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