Race and the Enlightenment - by Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Emmanuel Eze collects into one convenient and controversial volume the most important and influential writings on race that the European Enlightenment produced.

From the Back Cover

This book gathers into one volume the most provocative philosophical writing on race produced by the luminaries of the European Enlightenment. There is no anthology that has so focused itself on exploring through primary texts the alliance between philosophy, anthropology and race.

It is an attempt to show, through primary texts on matters of race, the "dark" sides of the Enlightenment philosophy. The book is an indispensable tool for students and researchers interested in exploring the race-inflected nature of eighteenth-century philosophy and science on the one hand, and the systematics relations between philosophy and anthropology and race, on the other.

Review Quotes

"By unveiling these voices and creating a greater depth of historical context for academic audiences they could expand and complicate modern discussions of racism and its origins. And indeed, these multilingual (yet translated) sources bring a fuller perspective to the dialogue." (H-Net, September 2010)

"This Reader reframes and expands the discussion of race from an emotional and ideological context to an intellectual and historical one. Moreover, it introduces students to some of the most influential and eloquent philosophers of the period. I think it would be essential to any course on race and useful in any course on the Enlightenment. It is certainly a welcome addition to the available texts." Marilyn Gaull, Temple University/New York University

"It brings together many passages from books only available in research libraries. It will therefore prove to be a useful anthology for teachers and students, providing an excellent starting point for much-needed historical and critical study."Peter Hulme, Research in African Literatures

"In compiling this useful anthology, Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze's starting point was the realization that writing about race formed an important but neglected aspect of Enlightenment thought." "Eze modestly concludes by saying that the collection will succeed if it provokes teachers, researchers, and students into further investigation of the place of race in Enlightenment thought. On that basis, it should be judged a likely success. It brings together many passages from books only available in research libraries. It will therefore prove to be a useful anthology for teachers and students, providing an excellent starting point for much-needed historical and critical study." Research in African Literatures

About the Author

Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze teaches in the Department of Philosophy at Bucknell University and is Research Associate at the African Studies Centre, Cambridge University, 1996-8. He is the editor of Blackwell's forthcoming African Philosophy: An Anthology and African Philosophy: A Critical Reader.