Blog post

Video of Jeffrey B. Perry talk on The Invention of the White Race

Natasha Lewis 5 February 2013

Theodore W. Allen's The Invention of the White Race is one of the twentieth-century's major contributions to historical understanding of race and class in the United States. In the book, first published in 1994, Allen details the creation of the "white race" by the ruling class as a method of social control, in response to labor unrest precipitated by Bacon's Rebellion. Distinguishing European Americans from African Americans within the laboring class, white privilege enforced the myth of the white race through the years and has been central to maintaining ruling-class domination over the entire working class.

Last week, Brecht Forum hosted a launch party for Verso’s new edition of the book, which includes notes and an introduction by Jeffrey B. Perry. At the launch, Perry gave a lecture and slide presentation on Allen's two-volume classic.

Also, click here to view a presentation by Perry on "The Invention of the White Race" for the James Connolly Forum in Troy, New York. Additionally available here is an interview with Perry at Morehouse College on Hubert Harrison, Theodore W. Allen and the 'white race' as a ruling class social control formation.