ABSTRACT
To classify the peoples of the world, we sometimes invent races. What I mean is that we cut the human continuum into discrete groups, each with a biological identity that we think of as passed down from one generation to the next. We then assign characteristics to these groups: Whites are good swimmers and blacks have rhythm. One period when racial categories like these were invented to mark the differences between human groups was in the middle of the nineteenth century in England. How the idea of ‘race’ gained adherents in England at that time is the central focus of this book.
