Free shipping on orders over $99
The Skull Measurer's Mistake

The Skull Measurer's Mistake

And Other Portraits of Men and Women Who Spoke Out Against Racism

by Sven Lindqvist
Hardback
Publication Date: 19/06/1997

Share This Book:

 
$39.99
In 1981, Stephen Jay Gould exposed the bad science behind nineteenth-century American studies that "proved" that Anglo-Saxons were superior because they had larger brains. In The Skull Measurer's Mistake, Sven Lindqvist tells the story of Friedrich Tiedemann, the nineteenth-century German doctor who dared to speak out against such racist science when it was first practiced.

Often the history of racism is reduced to the study of racists. Less well known are the stories of those who argued and fought against prejudice and persecution. In this unique book, Sven Lindqvist, Swedish author of internationally acclaimed books on Africa, China, and Latin America, profiles more than twenty nineteenth-century men and women who, while not themselves victims of racism, went against the temper of the time to expose the many faces of prejudice.

Along with Tiedemann's story, The Skull Measurer's Mistake recounts the antiracist efforts of Benjamin Franklin, Helen Hunt, Joseph Conrad, Alexis de Tocqueville, and others whose names have been forgotten. Well-documented and rich in anecdote, Lindqvist's book shows how racist arguments emerged-and reemerged-over time. At the book's core is Lindqvist's belief that knowledge of past debates about racism can help us defeat it now.
ISBN:
9781565843639
9781565843639
Category:
Social discrimination & inequality
Format:
Hardback
Publication Date:
19-06-1997
Language:
English
Publisher:
The New Press
Country of origin:
United States
Pages:
182
Dimensions (mm):
209x139x20mm
Weight:
0.35kg
Sven Lindqvist

Sven Lindqvist was born in Stockholm in 1932 and has travelled extensively through Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Click 'Notify Me' to get an email alert when this item becomes available

Reviews

Be the first to review The Skull Measurer's Mistake.