Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The author gives a very distorted history of whiteness as a racial category. The ultimate racial question facing American elites has always been how to divide one "race" from another given the reality of racial mixture. Painter makes the false statement that a "one drop" rule forcing "blackness" on predominately white people has always been law in American. False! She has not read the latest research showing that, not only did antebellum states legally allow varying amounts of "black blood" into the "white race," but "acting whiteness" or exercising the rights and social obligations of white people would raise people from "colored" to "white" even if the official "blood" quota was not met. The unenforceable "one drop" laws only came into existence (in SOME states) in the 20th century in connection with the eugenics movement. Instead of referencing excellent works on this subject such as What Blood Won't Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America and Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise And Triumph of the One-drop Rule, Painter presents the worthless novel "Marie" as accurate history. If you want to read a detailed, accurate description of racial mixture and Creole society, the best book on the subject is White By Definition: Social Classification in Creole Louisiana. Painter mentions Josiah Knott but seems totally unaware of how his racist theory of "mulatto inferiority" was quoted into the 20th century by judges sentencing couples for breaking "miscegenation laws." She does not understand how the existence of white slaves (both "mixed" and "pure)inspired and outraged the abolitionist movement and the nascent Republican Party. For that history, you can read The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War: A New Look at the Slavery Issue. The author barely spends time on Mexicans and other Hispanics, even though the issue of determining whether or not they should be considered "white" (despite both Indian and African ancestry)is essential to any history of "whiteness." An excellent book on this subject is The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (American Crossroads, 2). It is important to know that even notorious racists like Walter Plecker (a name Painter SHOULD know)failed to force mixed whites to become "Negroes" when the intended victims resisted those efforts. The Melungeons are the prime example: Walking Toward The Sunset: The Melungeons Of Appalachia (Melungeons: History, Culture, Ethnicity, & Literature) and The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People : An Untold Story of Ethnic Cleansing in America. Anyone who has read Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Racewill be disgusted with the way it has been upstaged by Painter's far inferior book. American immigration law's obsession with determining when Asians can be called "white" should have been given a lot of attention. Read White by Law 10th Anniversary Edition: The Legal Construction of Race (Critical America Series). Painter's book isn't very good, but it has a big advertising budget. Let's hope that someone else writes a really comprehensive history of "white people" and "whiteness."