The Color of Liberty : Histories of Race in France

France has long defined itself as a color-blind nation where racial bias has no place. Even today, the French universal curriculum for secondary students makes no mention of race or slavery, and many French scholars still resist addressing racial questions. Yet, as this groundbreaking volume shows, color and other racial markers have been major factors in French national life for more than three hundred years. The sixteen essays in The Color of Liberty offer a wealth of innovative research on the neglected history of race in France, ranging from the early modern period to the present. The Color of Liberty addresses four major themes: the evolution of race as an idea in France; representations of "the other" in French literature, art, government, and trade; the international dimensions of French racial thinking, particularly in relation to colonialism; and the impact of racial differences on the shaping of the modern French city. The many permutations of race in French history—as assigned identity, consumer product icon, scientific discourse, philosophical problem, by-product of migration, or tool in empire building—here receive nuanced treatments confronting the malleability of ideas about race and the uses to which they have been put. Contributors. Leora Auslander, Claude Blanckaert, Alice Conklin, Fred Constant, Laurent Dubois, Yaël Simpson Fletcher, Richard Fogarty, John Garrigus, Dana Hale, Thomas C. Holt, Patricia M. E. Lorcin, Dennis McEnnerney, Michael A. Osborne, Lynn Palermo, Sue Peabody, Pierre H. Boulle, Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, Tyler Stovall, Michael G. Vann, Gary Wilder Introduction: Race, France, Histories / Sue Peabody And Tyler Stovall -- Race: The Evolution Of An Idea. Franc̦ois Bernier And The Origins Of The Modern Concept Of Race / Pierre H. Boulle -- Eliminating Race, Eliminating Difference: Blacks, Jews, And The Abbé Grégoire / Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall -- Of Monstrous Métis? Hybridity, Fear Of Miscegenation, And Patriotism From Buffon To Paul Broca / Claude Blanckaert -- Representations Of The Other. Race, Gender, And Virtue In Haiti's Failed Foundational Fiction: La Mulâtre Comme Il Y A Peu De Blanches (1803) / John Garrigus -- Inscribing Race In The Revolutionary French Antilles / Laurent Dubois -- Sex, Gender, And Race In The Colonial Novels Of Elissa Rhaïs And Lucienne Favre / Patricia M.e. Lorcin -- French Images Of Race On Product Trademarks During The Third Republic / Dana S. Hale -- Sambo In Paris: Race And Racism In The Iconography Of The Everyday / Leora Auslander And Thomas C. Holt -- Colonial And Global Perspectives. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Variation And Difference In French Racism In Colonial Indochine / Michael G. Vann -- Constructions And Functions Of Race In French Military Medicine, 1830-1920 / Richard Fogarty And Michael A. Osborne -- Panafricanism And The Republican Political Sphere / Gary Wilder -- Frantz Fanon, The Resistance, And The Emergence Of Identity Politics / Dennis Mcennerney -- Race And The Postcolonial City. Identity Under Construction: Representing The Colonies At The Paris Exposition Universelle Of 1889 / Lynn E. Palermo -- Who Speaks For Africa? The René Maran-blaise Diagne Trial In 1920s Paris / Alice L. Conklin -- Catholics, Communists, And Colonial Subjects: Working-class Militancy And Racial Difference In Postwar Marseille / Yaël Simpson Fletcher -- From Red Belt To Black Belt: Race, Class, And Urban Marginality In Twentieth-century Paris / Tyler Stovall. Edited By Sue Peabody And Tyler Stovall. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.