The Racial Contract [Paperback]

Charles W. Mills (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 171 pages
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801484634
• ISBN-13: 978-0801484636
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > History > Americas > United States > African Americans

More About the Author

Charles W. Mills is John Evans Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at Northwestern University. He did his PhD at the University of Toronto, and previously taught at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mills works in the general area of oppositional political theory, with a particular focus on race. He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, and five books: The Racial Contract (1997), Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race (1998), From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism (2003), Contract and Domination (with Carole Pateman) (2007), and Radical Theory, Caribbean Reality: Race, Class and Social Domination (2010).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Deconstruction but Still a Tour de Force, June 21, 2003

By 

Lucas K. Hergert (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Racial Contract (Paperback)

"White supremacy is the unnamed political system that has made the modern world what it is today." So begins The Racial Contract, and in the mere 133 pages that follow this line the book deftly marshals evidence from the Western political tradition and general history to effectively place race at the heart of political theory. It centrally elucidates the ways in which the social contract has unspoken suppositions which in actuality make it a handshake between whites to exploit the lands, labors and bodies of nonwhites. These suppositions include the understanding that the peoples and places it "races" are not fully human--an idea that has legitimated 500 years of Western atrocities and exploitations exacted upon countries with peoples of color. Thus it also calls into question the popular idea that racism is merely a misguided worldview, and says rather that it is solidly within the epistemological, political and moral understandings of the West.

Mills places his theory firmly within the liberal conception of rights and so explores the ways in which such rights (as to life and labors) have been systematically alienated from nonwhites. Hence, those who have called this work a "deconstruction" or anti-Enlightenment are quite wrong. Mills: "Though it may appear to be such, the 'Racial Contract' is not a 'deconstruction' of the social contract.... The 'Racial Contract' is really...pro-Enlightenment...and antipostmodernist" (129). The reason that this is so important to Mills' project is that he is not proposing that ethics are relative or that there are no ethical norms that can coherently be placed at the center of a political project. He proposes that there are such norms but that they have been systematically denied to nonwhites. He also puts forth the very unpostmodern idea that there is a correct metanarrative of history--one that identifies white supremacy and conquest as the unnamed political system making the world what it is today. Hence, this work is more correctly placed in the tradition of the "radical and to-be-completed Enlightenment" (129). (In other words, if prospective readers are looking for contemporary continental thought--go to [my favorites] Zizek, Foucault or Fanon, not to Mills.)

I hope that this does not sound too academic or technical. I have read plenty of dry and boring theoretical texts, and this simply is not that. I stayed up until four in the morning finishing The Racial Contract in one sitting--it is perhaps my favorite book read thus far in college. Anyone concerned about the problems of race--whether familiar with political theory or not--can (and should) read this book and get a tremendous amount from it.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wholistic look at race, July 13, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Racial Contract (Paperback)

A must read.

In The Racial Contract, Mills places race in context of much larger societal patterns. His approach allows us to see the systemic nature of the problem. Given this context, one can have a more objective conversation about constructs relating to racism.

As a black person, The Racial Contract helped me understand why racism exists, why it's so difficult to reverse and how we all play a role in the system.

Reader beware. Unless you are an academic, the first third of the book can be tough going. It's worth pushing forward. Mills' writing gets easier to navigate.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Essential Read!, February 16, 2006

By 

Lee Blair (West Orange, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Racial Contract (Paperback)

I'm not sure this book needs much of a review. Most folks who have gotten this far are probably already predisposed towards buying this book anyway. Other reviews of this book treat the book exactly the way Mills has covered the subject matter. I will not be as eloquent. This book is quite simply the most truthful book ever written on the subject. "The Racial Contract" should be required reading for everyone that can read. Its message is not finger pointing, or condescending in tone. It is not apologetic at all. It could be a wake up call for Eurocentric civilization... if it is read!