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‘Race Is Everything’: Art and Human Difference
A timely and revealing look at the intertwined histories of science, art, and racism.
‘Race Is Everything’ explores the spurious but influential ideas of so-called racial science in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, and how art was affected by it. David Bindman looks at race in general, but with particular concentration on attitudes toward and representations of people of African and Jewish descent. He argues that behind all racial ideas of the period lies the belief that outward appearance—and especially skull shape, as studied in the pseudoscience of phrenology—can be correlated with inner character and intelligence, and that these could be used to create a seemingly scientific hierarchy of races. The book considers many aspects of these beliefs, including the skull as a racial marker; ancient Egypt as a precedent for Southern slavery; Darwin, race, and aesthetics; the purported “Mediterranean race”; the visual aspects of eugenics; and the racial politics of Emil Nolde.
‘Race Is Everything’ explores the spurious but influential ideas of so-called racial science in the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, and how art was affected by it. David Bindman looks at race in general, but with particular concentration on attitudes toward and representations of people of African and Jewish descent. He argues that behind all racial ideas of the period lies the belief that outward appearance—and especially skull shape, as studied in the pseudoscience of phrenology—can be correlated with inner character and intelligence, and that these could be used to create a seemingly scientific hierarchy of races. The book considers many aspects of these beliefs, including the skull as a racial marker; ancient Egypt as a precedent for Southern slavery; Darwin, race, and aesthetics; the purported “Mediterranean race”; the visual aspects of eugenics; and the racial politics of Emil Nolde.
- GenresHistory
320 pages, Hardcover
Published June 26, 2023
66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 1, 2025
It took me a while to finish this book, but I think it’s one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.
Bindman takes you through the history of racial science from the end of the 18th century to the early 20th and examines its evolution and influences on art and visual culture, as well as responses to racial science and eugenics by figures such as W.E.B Dubois and Franz Boas. Exploring the early practices of Phrenology, skull measurements, and racial physiognomy, visual representations of African and African-American people in European and American art, the creation of the idea of a “Jewish race” and Jewishness through visual representations of Jews, racial ideas of beauty, aesthetics, and ugliness, and the application of eugenics to art and dissemination of popular racial imagery in the 20th century. Bindman asserts that this so called science which created and helped maintain racial hierarchies was “essentially visual”, which necessitated the creation of demeaning and offensive racial imagery and artwork to bolster the idea of race as a fundamental and inherent fact of the world.
Overall I really did enjoy this book and think everyone should probably read it if interested.
Bindman takes you through the history of racial science from the end of the 18th century to the early 20th and examines its evolution and influences on art and visual culture, as well as responses to racial science and eugenics by figures such as W.E.B Dubois and Franz Boas. Exploring the early practices of Phrenology, skull measurements, and racial physiognomy, visual representations of African and African-American people in European and American art, the creation of the idea of a “Jewish race” and Jewishness through visual representations of Jews, racial ideas of beauty, aesthetics, and ugliness, and the application of eugenics to art and dissemination of popular racial imagery in the 20th century. Bindman asserts that this so called science which created and helped maintain racial hierarchies was “essentially visual”, which necessitated the creation of demeaning and offensive racial imagery and artwork to bolster the idea of race as a fundamental and inherent fact of the world.
Overall I really did enjoy this book and think everyone should probably read it if interested.
September 15, 2024
Though it took me a while to get through this book, it is not from lack of interest. The author takes the reader on a journey through art historical representations of Blackness, Indigeneity, Jewishness, and difference. He works through the perspective of the artists' lived experiences, the artworks' historical contexts, and through how white supremacist information was being shaped and disseminated through imagery and imagination.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews