Race And the Crisis of Humanism

In Kay Anderson's provocative new account, she argues that British colonial encounters in Australia from the late 1700s with the apparently unimproved condition of the Australian Aborigine, viewed against an understanding of 'humanity' of the time (that is, as characterised by separation from nature), precipitated a crisis in existing ideas of what it meant to be human. As consternation grew not only about their inclination but about their very capacity for improvement, and particularly for cultivation, the Aborigines challenged the basis upon which the unity of humankind had been assumed. The intractable Aborigine came to supply seemingly irrefutable evidence for an essential, permanent and innate racial difference; and so came to provide the strongest support for those who maintained the intrinsic inferiority of the 'dark-skinned' races more generally.This lucid, intelligent and persuasive argument will be necessary reading for all scholars and their upper-level students interested in history and theories of 'race', Australian studies, colonial history, critical human geography and anthropology.Anderson, Kay is the author of 'Race And the Crisis of Humanism ', published 2007 under ISBN 9781844721511 and ISBN 1844721515.