Race and the Crisis of Humanism

Taylor & Francis

Race and the Crisis of HumanismAuthor(s): Kay Anderson\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, United Kingdom\nImprint: Routledge Cavendish\nISBN-13: 9781844721511, 978-1844721511\nSynopsis\nThe idea that humankind constituted a unity, albeit at different stages of 'development', was in the 19th century challenged with a new way of thinking. The 'savagery' of certain races was no longer regarded as a stage in their progress towards 'civilisation', but as their permanent state. What caused this shift?\n\nIn Kay Anderson's provocative new account, she argues that British colonial encounters in Australia from the late 1700s with the apparently unimproved condition of the Australian Aborigine, viewed against an understanding of 'humanity' of the time (that is, as characterised by separation from nature), precipitated a crisis in existing ideas of what it meant to be human. \n\nThis lucid, intelligent and persuasive argument will be necessary reading for all scholars and .