The History of White People

The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter; W.W. Norton & Company Publishing, 2011

Reviewed by Renee Bush

I love it when the study of history shows that a so-called universal truth that has been around forever turns out to really be quite new. Painter's latest book The History of White People examines the history of “whiteness” as a racial category and rhetorical weapon: who is considered to be “white,” who is not, what such distinctions mean, and how notions of whiteness have morphed over time in response to shifting demographics, aesthetic tastes, and political exigencies. The author focuses primarily on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and how the concept of race based on skin color is largely an invention of the Victorian era. For a change of pace, try The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery, about Renee--the concierge of a "snooty-type" Parisian apartment building, who hides her brilliance under a frumpy exterior. My Stroke of Insight, by Jill Taylor, really "hits home" with me. I read this book right after my own mother suffered a stroke. When the author's analytical left brain is damaged, she learns that her here-and-now right brain has a lot to teach her.