I'd like to offer my thanks for bibliographic suggestions re:
constructions of whiteness to Timothy Burke, Doug Deal, Sandra Greene, A.
T. Miller, Paul Landau, Daniel Segal, Ted Swedenburg, and anyone I might
have missed. You have all been helpful. As one of you said, "it is an
underexplored topic, somewhat like the "male" category in gender studies."
FYI, and as a gesture of thanks, I've compiled a list of your suggestions
below, in case that would be of any service to you. They are a mixture of
titles on "race" generally, "race" in certain countries or regions, "race"
studies as informed by class and gender studies.
David Roediger, *Towards the Abolition of Whiteness: Essays on Race, Class
and Working Class History* and *The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making
of the American Working Class*. Both by Verso Press (Roediger's were by
far the most suggested titles.)
You might see the the review article on Roediger in the *Journal of African
Studies*, 20. 4 (Dec. 1994), pp. 663-9, by J. Krikler. There is an astute
review of David Roediger from a feminist position by Dana Frank in
*Socialist Review* v. 24, 1+2, 1995. This special issue entitled *Arranging
Identities* also contains other articles on whiteness: Jasbir K. Puar,
"Resituating Discourses of 'Whiteness' and 'Asianness' in Northern England:
Second-Generation Sikh Women and Constructions of Identity" and Charles A.
Gallager, "White Reconstruction in the University."
Verso has also published a more cantankerous, and probably less useful,
book by Theodore Allen called *The Invention of the White Race*.
(mentioned twice.)
Still with Verso, a recent work by Alexander Saxton, *Rise [or Rise and
Fall?] of the White Republic* (mentioned thrice). Saxton is a very fine
historian who worked first on anti-Chinese prejudice on the West Coast,
particularly in the labor movement (*The Indispensable Enemy*).
A different slant on racial "Anglo-Saxonism" in Britain and America is
provided by Reginald Horsman in his *Race and Manifest Destiny*.
Micaela di Leonardo's forthcoming book *Exotics at Home* should also
provide some powerful commentary on this subject.
Martin Bernal's *BLACK ATHENA* (vol.1), may or may not be an acceptable
reinterpretation of ancient history but definitely has interesting insights
into the scholarly construction of racial categories in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
A truly panoramic view of European attitudes of racial supremacy in the
imperial age is provided in the delightfully written *THE LORDS OF HUMAN
KIND* by V. G. Kiernan.
Eric Lott's "Love and Theft" on the popularity of minstrelsy among whites
in the 19th century deals with the formation of white identity, but is a
bit jargony [for] undergraduates.
For the British, there is "There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack" by Paul
Gilroy.
Jonathan Cell has "The Highest Stage of White Supremacy" comparing the U.S.
and South Africa on the issue of white identity that becomes so assertive
as to be violent.
Kipling and all the other empire folks are pretty up front about trying to
define imperial whiteness, as is James Fennimore Cooper in "American
Democracy" (if you want period stuff). Cooper is very opposed to it, while
Kipling glories in it. Mark Twain is very interesting in "Puddin' Head
Wilson" on the strange notion of being white.
Dominguez, Virginia, *White By Definition*
Segal, D. "'The European': Allegories of Racial Purity" in *Anthropology
Today*, v7(5).
Ruth Frankenberg, *White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of
Whiteness*, University of Minnesota Press, 1993. This is an ethnography
dealing with whiteness as experienced by contemporary unitedstatesian
women, but also gives historical background. (mentioned twice).
Ruth Frankenberg also has an edited collection, *Local Whiteness,
Localizing Whiteness*, forthcoming from Duke University Press.
Vron Ware, *Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History*, Verso,1992.
Investigates the role of ideas about white women in the history of racism,
focusing mainly on nineteenth century Britain, but linking this to
campaigns in Britain against slavery, lynching in the US, and British
imperialism.
Another very fine set of essays on whiteness is *White Guys* by Fred Pfeil,
which deals with white masculinity in the 80s and 90s, and includes
chapters on the men's movement, male "rampage" films, etc.
Another book that might illuminate the subject of "whiteness" in a broader
vein is James G. Carrier, ed., *Occidentalism: Images of the West*.
There is also a remarkably rich South African literature on the subject of
whiteness and its construction; Rian Malan, *My Traitor's Heart*, Marq de
Villiers, *White Tribe Dreaming*, Vincent Crapanzano, *Waiting*, and
possibly Saul duBow's new book *Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa*.
There was also an issue of the *Village Voice* a ways back with a
bunch of stories published under the heading "White Like Me."