This book describes the development of legal codes and institutional practices that brought vast wealth and power to their chief beneficiaries, along with great suffering, exploitation and destruction to its victims. Instead of understanding racism as an aberration or dark flaw in the troubled past of a world power like the United States, this synthesis places race and racism in the forefront of the unfolding history of nationalism and capitalism. The work de-emphasizes the uniqueness of each nation's particular experience by showing the interdependence of capitalist and racist practices. The narrative follows the leading hegemonic national powers as they expanded from mercantile conquests through plantation enslavement, massive displacement of populations, colonialism, global warfare and finally the tenacious contemporary aftermath. There are no comparable surveys for undergraduates or general readers seeking a unified historical understanding of these primary drivers of modernity. It is a provocative introductory guide and not a work of political theory.
This volume will appeal to students, scholars and those interested in studies on racism, race, capital, the history of inequality and human and civil rights.