Sussman’s stated purpose in the introduction to this book is to “describe the history of our myth of race and racism” (3). However, a few pages later, he admits that he has not done archival research himself but instead has “depended upon the published works of many historians, biographers, and philosophers” (9). In other words, he is basing his premises upon secondary sources that may have their own biases. He does not present a hypothesis or even a research question but boldly states what he is trying to find and backs up his thesis with interpretations that support it. This methodology could be considered historiographical research. However, rarely does he compare the interpretation of one historian with that of another in an objective manner or compare interpretations from one time period to those from another, as other historiographical researchers usually do. Researchers in the past, or present, who do not...
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Summer 2015
May 01 2015
The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. By Robert Wald Sussman (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2014) 384 pp. $35.00
Ruth Clifford Engs
Online ISSN: 1530-9169
Print ISSN: 0022-1953
© 2015 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Inc.
2015
MIT Press
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2015) 46 (1): 109–111.
Citation
Ruth Clifford Engs; The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. By Robert Wald Sussman (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2014) 384 pp. $35.00. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2015; 46 (1): 109–111. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/JINH_r_00800
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