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From White to Western: “Racial Decline” and the Idea of the West in Britain, 1890–1930
Author(s) -
BONNETT ALASTAIR
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6443.00210
Subject(s) - white (mutation) , solidarity , race (biology) , identity (music) , variety (cybernetics) , sociology , gender studies , social identity theory , political science , criminology , social group , law , social science , aesthetics , politics , art , biochemistry , chemistry , artificial intelligence , computer science , gene
Drawing on British works of imperial and social commentary, this article shows how a literature of white crisis emerged between 1890–1930. It was a literature that, whilst claiming to defend and affirm white identity, in fact exposed the limits of whiteness as a form of social solidarity. It is shown how these studies drew together a variety of challenges deemed to be facing the white race and, more specifically, how they exhibited a contradictory desire to defend white racial community whilst attacking “the masses”. The idea of the West, developing alongside, within and in the wake of this crisis literature, provided a less racially reductive but not necessarily less socially exclusive identity.