The History of White People

By: Nell Irvin Painter

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

A mind-expanding and myth-destroying exploration of notions of white race—not merely a skin color but also a signal of power, prestige, and beauty to be withheld and granted selectively. Ever since the Enlightenment, race theory and its inevitable partner, racism, have followed a crooked road, constructed by dominant peoples to justify their domination of others. Filling a huge gap in historical literature that long focused on the non-white, eminent historian Nell Irvin Painter guides us through more than two thousand years of Western civilization, tracing not only the invention of the idea of race but also the frequent worship of “whiteness” for economic, social, scientific, and political ends.

Our story begins in Greek and Roman antiquity, where the concept of race did not exist, only geography and the opportunity to conquer and enslave others. Not until the eighteenth century did an obsession with whiteness flourish, with the German invention of the notion of Caucasian beauty. This theory made northern Europeans into “Saxons,” “Anglo-Saxons,” and “Teutons,” envisioned as uniquely handsome natural rulers. Here was a worldview congenial to northern Europeans bent on empire. There followed an explosion of theories of race, now focusing on racial temperament as well as skin color. Spread by such intellectuals as Madame de Stael and Thomas Carlyle, white race theory soon reached North America with a vengeance.

Its chief spokesman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, did the most to label Anglo-Saxons—icons of beauty and virtue—as the only true Americans. It was an ideal that excluded not only blacks but also all ethnic groups not of Protestant, northern European background. The Irish and Native Americans were out and, later, so were the Chinese, Jews, Italians, Slavs, and Greeks—all deemed racially alien. Did immigrations threaten the very existence of America? Americans were assumed to be white, but who among poor immigrants could become truly American?

A tortured and convoluted series of scientific explorations developed—theories intended to keep Anglo-Saxons at the top: the ever-popular measurement of skulls, the powerful eugenics movement, and highly biased intelligence tests—all designed to keep working people out and down. As Painter reveals, power—supported by economics, science, and politics—continued to drive exclusionary notions of whiteness until, deep into the twentieth century, political realities enlarged the category of truly American.

A story filled with towering historical figures, The History of White People forcefully reminds us that the concept of one white race is a recent invention. The meaning, importance, and realty of this all-too-human thesis of race have buckled under the weight of a long and rich unfolding of events.

©2010 Nell Irvin Painter (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

thank you!

now I understand why the hatred is so strong for my people. is booked has been very enlightening on my quiz to figure out the truth behind race and racism.

a good learn

I learned from this book which is all you really want to do from a book. but it bounced around a lot

Insightful

If reveals all of the biases and fallacies that some hold as fact. Deal with people based on their conduct and not your perceptions and learnt prejudices.

Exacting, thorough, interesting

It took me a while to get into it because of the dates and names, but then I realized how well researched and blissfully thorough the book is. Which is what the best of science is to me. As a white woman in the US, I appreciate this book because I have rarely gotten a real solid answer on whiteness in the US, and IMO we all need to know where we come from--conceptually and spiritually if not literally. Nell Irvin Painter sheds light on this.

As a middle class/working class disabled white woman from a working class family, I value Painter's insight on class and the construction of racial whiteness and how that leads to pressure on each of us to live a certain role. The details and history are jaw dropping. The current day play of this legacy is *facepalm* really obvious after listening and inexcusable.

I have to honor the horrors that have been and are still done by your everyday, pleasant seeming white person to people of color and even poor (for example, homeless) white people in the interest of maintaining a certain standard of middle class whiteness. It's hard for me to hear, although this is not a new idea to me. But it's better to hear it and deal with it and stop doing that bs. The subtle humor of the author comes into view at various times of the read, and it's refreshing when the weight of the facts and sheer illogic of racism and classism can really weigh you down.

One thing I wish Painter would dealve into more: the othering of Indigenous Americans and how the process of colonialism and our current settler society (meaning the land we live on is, literally, stolen from the recent ancestors of our American Indian neighbors) ties into the house of cards of whiteness and settler identity.

I recommend this book. Thank you Nell Irvin Painter.

The basis of the USA

Painter makes it clear, even though she doesn't explicitly say it , that the existence of the construct of the USA, Inc., is dependent upon whiteness. In fact, what I take from this book is that, given Capitalism, Whiteness is THE single construct that undergirds the continued economic success of the whole enterprise known as the Americas.

Can one imagine how risky, career-wise, it was for Painter, an Princeton African American Scholar, to tell white folks who they are. It is also clear that Painter has had to write benignly (or is it the audio performance of Allyson Johnson) and avoid any language that could be used to accuse her of polemiscism(sp), in order have her work be acceptable.

For example, look at her treatment of Malcolm X in the context of so-called Black Power and nationalism movements. Instead of showing, fully, how the result of late '50s thru early '60s was an empirical demonstration of the power of the "whiteness", it comes off, to this reader, that she lays the blame for blue-collar anger on the reaction to black power .... shameless. Why is this a problem? Because she earlier asserts that the white concept and the "buffer class" strategy was waaaay earlier used to consistently keep African Americans (AMs) oppressed. It came off a little like "blame the victim". This reviewer will state that he is particularly sensitive to this area of history since it was THE LAST opportunity AMs had to establish a cultural and economic bulwark against whiteness.

All considered, this book is a majorly important work and, needless to say, should be read by all white folks. Having said the needless, I know that it won't be. 21st century whites, in general, are too sensitive and tender to be able to deal with who they are and how they came to be. Just look at Trump, who came about after her book...I would love to see a revision based on the events and results leading to the election and administration of Trump.

A dense read but worth it

This book took me a LONG time to read, but I’m glad I took the time. I learned a lot about how the construct of race has shaped American and global thinking, policy, science, and migration. It’s a tough text to get through because of its academic nature, but I came away from it with a hope of a time when American society may be able to get past the pseudoscience of race, something I had not thought possible before.

This Book is fascinating

this book... WOW where to EVEN start! reinforced what I was always taught. Race is a construct and that people are people... except when one group seeks to take a place of advantage over another. We need to repaint the entire way history has been taught... art and even beauty has been perceived through different lenses. I say again what a fascinating book!

Enraged & Engaged

This book enraged and engaged me -- It's really the history of privileged white men pontificating about what beauty means and pulling science out of their butts as a tool to feel good about their pinkness. I was rolling my eyes at them for 3/4 of the book.

Rage aside, I was enthralled. I'm currently also reading Zinn's People's History and appreciated the additional race-centered perspective regarding historical events. Also, it's fascinating to watch the progressive transformation of thought and to think about what the future may bring, in light of new science and climate change.

Loved the narration and a great book that racists will probably can't learn from because division is their myth, their religion...

wonderfully done!

This book does a a phenomenal job of pulling together pertinent authorship research and presentation of race and ethnicity not only from America but from its Global ancestry. How the author was able to tie in very important works of literature, science, religion, and sociology together to explicate the issue and presence of race today in America was fantastic! Great book!!

This has SOLID answers for many race questions

It takes a bit to get used to the sense of time of the narrative (it deals in more periods than actual yearly chunks), but it answers a great many questions about how white folks (at least in America have chosen) have chosen to categorize themselves and others. It lays bare the intentions and faults of all of the terms used and does so in a manner that is WAY less judgemental than it deserves to be. There are A LOT of influential figures in the narrative (some of them German or French) so you might want to get some notes going for reference if you're not great with names. Great book with some astonishing connections to make if you're a student of 19th and 20th American history.