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Two Centuries of Selling Racism in America
by Philip Kadish
A provocative new history of the forgeries, bogus science, rigged data, and fake news that keep American racism alive.
Fake news, outright political lies, a shamelessly partisan press, and the collapse of truth, civility, and shared facts, Philip Kadish argues, are nothing new. The Great White Hoax, a masterpiece of historical and literary sleuthing, reveals that the era of Fox News and Donald Trump is simply a return to form. We have been here before.
In a book that brilliantly puts our current era into historical context, The Great White Hoax uncovers a centuries-long tradition of white supremacist hoaxes, perpetrated on the American public by a succession of political hucksters and opportunists, all of them willfully using racial frauds as tools for political and social advantage. In the antebellum era, slavery's defenders used bogus science to "prove" the inferiority of African American people; during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln's enemies circulated a sham pamphlet accusing him of promoting a dilution of the white race through "miscegenation" (a racist term invented by the pamphlet's authors).
From these murky beginnings, author Philip Kadish draws a direct thread to D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, Henry Ford's adaptation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Madison Grant's embrace of eugenics (which directly influenced Adolf Hitler), Alabama Governor George Wallace's race-baiting, and Roger Ailes's creation of Fox News.
The Great White Hoax reveals white supremacy as today's real "fake news"—and exposes the cast of villains, past and present, who have kept American racism alive.
"This meticulous and captivating account makes a disturbing case that America is easily swayed by racist cons." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The catalogue of racist hoaxes and misinformation in Kadish's book provides a valuable template for modern readers to critically examine today's hyper-partisan news media...Thoughtful and timely." —Library Journal (starred review)
"The Great White Hoax brilliantly illustrates how the myth of so-called white supremacy is a fraud which has been perpetuated by journalists, authors, and politicians." —Steven W. Thrasher, author of The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide
"Kadish's beautifully written, endlessly fascinating, and stunningly insightful book brilliantly reveals that for most of American history hucksters have used scientific fraud to justify white supremacy, subjugate the 'other,' gain political power, and augment their bank accounts. The Great White Hoax masterfully demonstrates that the recent bout of racism catalyzed by Donald Trump is not an aberration in American history, but rather a depressing return to form." —Jonathan Peter Spiro, author of Defending the Master Race
This information about The Great White Hoax was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Philip Kadish is a professor of American Studies at Pace University in New York City. His op-eds connecting contemporary racial issues to their roots in nineteenth-century American culture have appeared on CNN.com and NBC.com. The author of The Great White Hoax (The New Press), he lives in New York City.
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