Overview
An American creation myth posits that these two black men were the victims of racial” discrimination, a primal prejudice that the United States has haltingly but gradually repudiated over the course of many generations. In A Dreadful Deceit, award-winning historian Jacqueline Jones traces the lives of Antonio, Owens, and four other African Americans to illustrate the strange history of race” in America. In truth, Jones shows, race does not exist, and the very factors that we think of as determining it a person’s heritage or skin colorare mere pretexts for the brutalization of powerless people by the powerful. Jones shows that for decades, southern planters did not even bother to justify slavery by invoking the concept of race; only in the late eighteenth century did whites begin to rationalize the exploitation and marginalization of blacks through notions of racial” difference. Indeed, race amounted to a political strategy calculated to defend overt forms of discrimination, as revealed in the stories of Boston King, a fugitive in Revolutionary South Carolina; Elleanor Eldridge, a savvy but ill-starred businesswoman in antebellum Providence, Rhode Island; Richard W. White, a Union veteran and Republican politician in post-Civil War Savannah; and William Holtzclaw, founder of an industrial school for blacks in Mississippi, where many whites opposed black schooling of any kind. These stories expose the fluid, contingent, and contradictory idea of race, and the disastrous effects it has had, both in the past and in our own supposedly post-racial society.
Expansive, visionary, and provocative, A Dreadful Deceit explodes the pernicious fiction that has shaped four centuries of American history.
This book title, A Dreadful Deceit (The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America), ISBN: 9780465055678, by Jacqueline Jones, published by Basic Books (June 2, 2015) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days. Expedited shipping is also available.
Unlike Amazon and other retailers who may also offer A Dreadful Deceit (The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America) books on their website, we specialize in large quantities and provide personal service, from trusted, experienced, friendly people in Portland, Oregon. We offer a Price Match Guarantee, and QuickQuote form, to make purchasing quick and easy.
Prefer to work with a human being when you order A Dreadful Deceit (The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America) books in bulk? Our Book Specialists are standing by Monday-Friday 8-5 PST, ready to help!
This book title, A Dreadful Deceit (The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America), ISBN: 9780465055678, by Jacqueline Jones, published by Basic Books (June 2, 2015) is available in paperback. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
Unlike Amazon and other retailers who may also offer A Dreadful Deceit (The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America) books on their website, we specialize in large quantities and provide personal service, from trusted, experienced, friendly people in Portland, Oregon. We offer a Price Match Guarantee, and QuickQuote form, to make purchasing quick and easy.
Prefer to work with a human being when you order A Dreadful Deceit (The Myth of Race from the Colonial Era to Obama's America) books in bulk? Our Book Specialists are standing by Monday-Friday 8-5 PST, ready to help!