The Blinding Light of Race: Race and Racism in Western Society, Volume 2: Racial Segregation and Eugenical Science Between the Wars

"Anthropology is inherently interdisciplinary, and is inordinately implicated in the making of race and racism. This means that, as a field, it ends up today with tools able to understand racism and white supremacy and how all of that happened. Michael Blakey, in this new work, offers a skillful and panoramic view of how anthropology can add to our understanding of race and racism. This work will offer the opportunity to foster inter- and transdisciplinary conversations that aren’t always possible or prioritized. There are not enough books with this kind of ambition and innovation!" Christopher Driscoll, Associate Professor of Religion, Lehigh University "The methodology of ethnography, alongside the telling of the making of racism through biology and anthropology, is exciting and valuable. Such an approach can help readers to understand the very human implications of choices made and rejected in science. As such, this work by Michael Blakey will be useful for university courses on race that explore its production and reproduction in science. It will be especially attractive as a textual resource on Western campuses wherein significant sectors of society and science remain attached to racial determinism. This will make a valuable contribution to the variety of texts on the social construction of race and is a welcome invitation to interdisciplinary conversation." Jacqueline Battalora, Professor of Sociology, Saint Xavier University in Chicago, author of Birth of a White Nation (Routledge, 2021) "This work by Michael Blakey is both timely and will remain of enduring relevance for many years. The persistence of racism and surge of white backlash to efforts to address racial inequality, anti-Black violence, including and prominently in education, makes this work especially important in the contemporary moment. At the same time, the time-depth and scope of the book will mean that it maintains relevance for years to come. Taking the volumes together, I know of no single work that addresses and synthesizes the invention of race, the history of racism, and the contemporary dynamics of racism and politics of race, and science about race to the extent that this project does." Mark Anderson, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz "Many books and articles have been published on the subject of race. Michael Blakey’s thoroughness, scholarship, and lived experience makes his three-volume set stand out from the pack. It is an essential resource for anyone seriously interested in the topic." Jeffrey C. Long, Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico "In this monumental synthesis of science, history, philosophy, cultural critique, and autobiography, Professor Blakey has produced a work that nobody else could have. He takes us through the past, present, and future of anthropology as a racial science in a racialized nation; and in particular he examines physical anthropology, as it transitions into a more ethically conscious and reflexive biological anthropology in the 21st century. The highest testimony that any anthropologist can receive is that they will leave anthropology in better intellectual shape than they found it, and Prof. Blakey certainly will. His life and work represent the ultimately successful attempt of a visionary scholar to improve the practice of the science he works in. His scholarship and his perspectives will be a major influence for the next generation of scholars." Jon Marks, Professor of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte