White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press)

by Winthrop D. Jordan (Author)

10 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0807845509

ISBN-10: 0807845507

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White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (A Pelican Book)
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The paperback edition of Jordan's classic and award-winning work on the history of American race relations.

"The author has put simple solutions and flashy theories aside and brought to his task a patience, skepticism, thoroughness, and humility commensurate with the vast undertaking. He combines these qualities with imagination and insight. The result is a massive and learned work that stands as the most informed and impressive pronouncement on the subject yet made.--C. Vann Woodward, New York Times Book Review

"A monumental work of scholarship, brilliant in conception and execution, humane, convincing, informed by warmth and wit, illuminating reading for all those concerned with America's tragedy. . . . As an historian with keen psychological insights into his material, Winthrop Jordan is uniquely qualified to illuminate America's anguished dilemma.--Publishers Weekly

"[A] rare thing: an original contribution to an important subject. In helping us understand today's racial crisis, Jordan has ideally fulfilled the historian's function of investigating the past in order to enlighten the present.--The judges for the 1969 National Book Award for History and Biography

"This monumental study is a tremendously important block, fascinating and appalling, of American social and cultural history. . . . Though the study was begun years before the current civil rights agitation, it is quite indispensable for a full appreciation of the realities and wellsprings and the dilemmas of the contemporary struggle.--The Phi Beta Kappa Senate award committee for the 1968 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award

"White Over Black will stand as a landmark in the historiography of this generation. Its richness and insight, its sensitive, penetrating analysis of the unspoken as well as the explicit, its union of breadth with depth, make it a brilliant achievement.--Richard D. Brown, New England Quarterly

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the most important historical works of the past 40 years, contributing to the cultural shift in white thinking that made possible the election of Barack Obama." -- Gordon S. Wood, "Wall Street Journal" This monumental study is a tremendously important block, fascinating and appalling, of American social and cultural history.The Phi Beta Kappa Senate award committee for the 1968 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award A massive and learned work that stands as the most informed and impressive pronouncement on the subject yet made.C. Vann Woodward, "New York Times Book Review" "White Over Black" will stand as a landmark in the historiography of this generation. . . . A brilliant achievement.Richard D. Brown, "New England Quarterly" A rare thing: an original contribution to an important subject.The judges for the 1969 National Book Award for History and Biography "This monumental study is a tremendously important block, fascinating and appalling, of American social and cultural history.The Phi Beta Kappa Senate award committee for the 1968 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award" "A massive and learned work that stands as the most informed and impressive pronouncement on the subject yet made.C. Vann Woodward, "New York Times Book Review"" ""White Over Black" will stand as a landmark in the historiography of this generation. . . . A brilliant achievement.Richard D. Brown, "New England Quarterly"" [A] rare thing: an original contribution to an important subject.The judges for the 1969 National Book Award for History and Biography A monumental work of scholarship."Publishers Weekly"

Review

A monumental work of scholarship, brilliant in conception and execution, humane, convincing, informed by warmth and wit, illuminating reading for all those concerned with America's tragedy. . . . As an historian with keen psychological insights into his material, Winthrop Jordan is uniquely qualified to illuminate America's anguished dilemma.--Publishers Weekly

One of the most important historical works of the past 40 years, contributing to the cultural shift in white thinking that made possible the election of Barack Obama.--Gordon S. Wood, The Wall Street Journal

[A] rare thing: an original contribution to an important subject. In helping us understand today's racial crisis, Jordan has ideally fulfilled the historian's function of investigating the past in order to enlighten the present.--The judges for the 1969 National Book Award for History and Biography

This monumental study is a tremendously important block, fascinating and appalling, of American social and cultural history. . . . Though the study was begun years before the current civil rights agitation, it is quite indispensable for a full appreciation of the realities and wellsprings and the dilemmas of the contemporary struggle.--The Phi Beta Kappa Senate award committee for the 1968 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award

White Over Black will stand as a landmark in the historiography of this generation. Its richness and insight, its sensitive, penetrating analysis of the unspoken as well as the explicit, its union of breadth with depth, make it a brilliant achievement.--Richard D. Brown, New England Quarterly

The author has put simple solutions and flashy theories aside and brought to his task a patience, skepticism, thoroughness, and humility commensurate with the vast undertaking. He combines these qualities with imagination and insight. The result is a massive and learned work that stands as the most informed and impressive pronouncement on the subject yet made.--C. Vann Woodward, The New York Times Book Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Series: Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press
Paperback: 651 pages
Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press (September 25, 1968)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0807845507
ISBN-13: 978-0807845509
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 10 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #771,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #538 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Civil War > Abolition
- #1990 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Specific Demographics > Ethnic Studies
- #3200 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Sociology > Race Relations > Discrimination & Racism

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Herbert L Calhoun

Superiority Trumps Morality

December 24, 2005

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This work is a well-crafted, non-polemical theoretical chronology of the history of race and racism in Western and American culture. Winthdrop Jordan, now a professor at the University of Mississippi, is a careful writer and respected historian. His treatment, although non-polemical, still is very much a white-centered rendition of the formation of racism, with an historical bent and a heavy flavor of the "blacks are still a White Man's Burden" genre.

He sets forth the thesis that racism was not caused by slavery but in fact preceded it by at least a century. Attitudes and myths about dark skinned people formed by European sailors during the era of sea exploration to Africa, gelled and cross-fertilized upon reaching the "New World," where an abundance of land and a scarcity of labor conspired to reduce the Negro to the bottom of the American social and economic heap.

Negroes as slaves were always morally problematic, and American whites were forced to continue fashioning, revising and updating the rationalizations needed to justify their mistreatment and continued enslavement of them. The most stable result was an ideology of racial superiority that melded together the sailors' myths and attitudes about blacks, and a self-serving rendition of white, mostly Protestant, religion. This ideological concoction was so successful that over time maltreatment of blacks was pretty much taken as normal.

Primarily to avoid endangering their souls, only a handful of well-off religious zealots, the abolitionists, failed to accept these rationalizations. They chose adherence to higher moral and religious principles over racist ideology. But interestingly, they did not give up notions of superiority and continued to despise and would not consort with Negroes.

The strength of the book, in addition to being well-written, is that Jordan uses his keen psychological insights to touch on all of the very sensitive issues such as interracial sex, America being a white man's country, founding fathers attitudes towards Negroes, racism in the Caribbean, etc., and does so with a great deal of academic facility.

This is a very worthy effort and its very scholarly nature sets it apart from other books on this topic. Four stars

11 people found this helpful

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Professing Son of Allen

Classic

March 9, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is good scholarship. The book lives up to its promise. It does not promise to historicize the black American experience, nor does it do that. It is very useful in the context of its intended purpose.

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jerseyguy

I feel there is no better history covering this subject

June 6, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I read this book over twenty years ago. So now I bought the first edition, hard cover, once again. I feel there is no better history covering this subject.

One person found this helpful

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February 10, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Great book

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It's a fantastic anthology for the first European attitudes towards West Africans ...

July 4, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Okay this was written in the 60s by a European descendent, so be wary of the brainwashing language. It's a fantastic anthology for the first European attitudes towards West Africans and why they had the audacity to assume their supremacy, but they were invaders, not "voyagers." They were genocidal and ethnocidal maniacs, not "settlers." The sooner the world comes to terms with the complete abandonment of civilized society over the last 500 years, the sooner we can fix it.

Good read. Be wary of some of the language used.

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Elika

The Birth of Racial Attitudes from "First Impressions"

August 13, 2002

Format: Paperback

Winthrop D. Jordan answers the question, "what were the attitudes of white men toward Negroes during the first two centuries of European and African settlement in what became the United States of America?" in his book, White Over Black: Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550-1812 (vii). Jordan answers this question comprehensively; his book is sectioned off chronologically into six parts. The first part covers the evolution of the American attitudes regarding the Negroes with references to English perspectives, interpretations, and hypotheses, and topics of enslavement. The second part, "Provincial Decades," involves topics on freedom and control in a slave society, interracial sex, and of the spiritual and physical nature of a Negro. This is followed with an overview on the revolutionary era in which the Americans impose self-scrutiny on their behavior. Part four, "Society and Thought," gives in-depth descriptions on economic interest and national identity, limitations of antislavery, revolution, and result of separation. The last section involves Thomas Jefferson's actions and his impact on society, the "chain of being of the Negro," erasing Nature's "Stamp of Color," and actions toward a white man's country. The organization of these topics demonstrates analytically to the reader the development of racial "attitudes" as time passes.
Jordan's basic perspective of this issue was that slavery was not caused by racism or vice versa, these two factors both attributed to each other's development. This book is predominantly focused on how the Americans and their historical encounters formed and were fashioned by people different from themselves. The impression one seemed to receive upon reading this book was not biased, but of understanding and sympathy for both the whites and blacks; the author wished for equal treatment for the Negroes while having an accepting tone of the white's treatments of black people.
The content of this work is mostly theoretical; Jordan used many opinions of white men, such as their initial expression after exposure to Negroes, and he described the outlooks of various religious groups, such as the Puritans and Quakers. Jordan's theorizing is also well rounded from many aspects, involving political, economic, social, and cultural perspectives of both the black and white men. These theories and facts are organized chronologically, which support the thesis effectively as the reader can see how the different racial attitudes develop over time.
Jordan concludes that this debate over the Negro's racial standing stands within each white American's conscience. The cultural conscience of a white man insists the Negro be treated as his equal based on religious traditions and humanitarianism, whereas the strong feelings of domination and identity demanded the Negro be treated as inferior. He explains, "At a closer view, though, the duel appears more complex than a conflict between the best and worst in the white man's nature, for in a variety of ways the white man translated his `worst' into his `best'" (Jordan 582). This conclusion agrees with the thesis as he explains the behavior of white men understandingly, the slavery and racism coexisted as proof of the white domination.
Winthrop D. Jordan has summed up many aspects of the subject of racial issues in one book with both perspectives of the white Americans and Negroes. I recommend this book to readers who wish to be enlightened with a deep historical analysis of an American dilemma on race.

29 people found this helpful

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tensacross

the thesis of this book has since been refuted..

January 9, 2014

Format: Paperback

the thesis of this book has since been refuted by Theodore W. Allen's 2-volume "The Invention of the White Race".
read it, for sure! but then read allen's book.
what a history we have, amazing.

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MR76

November 10, 2004

Format: Paperback

This book was written in 1968 during a time of tremendous turmoil concerning race and race relations, but this book is still valid for anyone interested in the development of slavery and race relations in North America. Granted, his work is not without flaws. Jordan seems to overemphasize the "unthinking decision" aspect of slavery, and sometimes he has a tendency to repeat himself, but this book should not be dismissed simply as "politically correct" unless one wants to dismiss the fact that, for some reason, slavery and segregation were a part of our history.

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