Black into White: Race and Nationality in Brazilian Thought

by Thomas E. Skidmore, Skidmore, Thomas E. Skidmore, Thomas E.

Published to wide acclaim in 1974, Thomas E. Skidmore's intellectual history of Brazilian racial ideology has become a classic in the field. Available for the first time in paperback, this edition has been updated to include a new preface and bibliography that surveys recent scholarship in the field. Black into White is a broad-ranging study of what the leading Brazilian intellectuals thought and propounded about race relations between 1870 and 1930. In an effort to reconcile social realities with the doctrines of scientific racism, the Brazilian ideal of "whitening"—the theory that the Brazilian population was becoming whiter as race mixing continued—was used to justify the recruiting of European immigrants and to falsely claim that Brazil had harmoniously combined a multiracial society of Europeans, Africans, and indigenous peoples.

Genres: Brazil, History

305 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Thomas Elliott Skidmore was an American historian and scholar who specialized in Brazilian history.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good look at the Brazilian "whitening" ideal and a history of implicit and explicit racism in Brazil, at least up until 1973, when this book was written.

[Barri Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent exploration of the realities and history of race relatins in Brazil.