Bernard McGrane

The title of this book may be slightly misleading. The first sentence of the preface says it better: "this work is an inquiry into the history of the different conceptions of difference from roughly the sixteenth to the early twentieth century".

And it's an inquiry full of insights. How did Europeans in the sixteenth century conceptualize the foreign peoples they "discovered"? How do we conceptualize foreign peoples today when we speak of foreign "cultures"? What happened in between? For someone inclined to think critically about contemporary conceptions of human difference, this book provides the essential historical background.

However, I was a bit surprised by some of the sources for this book, especially the extended discussion of Robinson Crusoe. Certainly works of fiction reveal how the author conceptualizes human difference, but in this book Crusoe stands out as the only source which is not based on first-hand accounts from real life.

But speaking about the bibliography, I found it an excellent resource for further studies. It's especially rich on source material for the European encounter with the natives of America, which is McGrane's primary case study.

I recommend this book to anthropologists, but also to people with a general interest in the history of European conquest and colonization and the associated changes in the realm of ideas. The perspective adopted in this book is quite unique and the bibliography is valuable as well.… (mere)