When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619; there were no “white†people there; nor; according to colonial records; would there be for another sixty years. Historical debate about the origin of racial slavery has focused on the status of the Negro in seventeenth-century Virginia and Maryland. However; as Theodore W. Allen argues in this magisterial work; what needs to be studied is the transformation of English; Scottish; Irish and other European colonists from their various statuses as servants; tenants; planters or merchants into a single new all-inclusive status: that of whites. This is the key to the paradox of American history; of a democracy resting on race assumptions.Volume One of this two-volume work attempts to escape the “white blind spot†which has distorted consecutive studies of the issue. It does so by looking in the mirror of Irish history for a definition of racial oppression and for an explanation of that phenomenon in terms of social control; free from the absurdities of classification by skin color. Compelling analogies are presented between the history of Anglo-Irish and British rule in Ireland and American White Supremacist oppression of Indians and African-Americans. But the relativity of race is shown in the sea change it entailed; whereby emigrating Irish haters of racial oppression were transformed into White Americans who defended it. The reasons for the differing outcomes of Catholic Emancipation and Negro Emancipation are considered and occasion is made to demonstrate Allen’s distinction between racial and national oppression.
#4532583 in Books LEONAUR 2011-08-23Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x 1.00 x 5.51l; 1.34 #File Name: 085706603X372 pages
Review
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful. This Was My Genisis Into NapoleonicsBy Michael EnglandSome writers should be read for their style alone. One such writer is John Ruskin -- probably the greatest stylist in the English language ever! It didn't matter what Ruskin's subject was; he was an utter joy to read. That's what made him so popular in 19th Century England. Read anything by him and you'll see what I mean.T.A. Dodge should be read just because of his enthusiasm with his subjects! This old Civil War Yankee officer has an enthusiasm over his subjects that is quite infectuous! I think he is at least the equal to Gen. Lew Wallace (also of the Yankee Army; but I won't hold it against him either) author of Ben-Hur and The Fair God.T.A. Dodge reinds me of my favorite teacher from my high school days at Bryan Adams in Dallas; Tom Allen. Professor Allen had an enthusiasm about History -- espacially Texas History and the American Civil War -- that got every class fired up with the joy of History -- that's REAL history; not the revisionist dung they're trying to pass off as History in high schools these days.You want to know the truth? You're going to have to go looking for it yourself. Expect it to be a solitary journey ...and trust no one who trys to tell you what to think or believe -- especially the mainstream liberal; leftist press; which has lost its objectivity and is utterly corrupted and failed in its public trust; if not treasonous against the American people and humanity generally.One thing you CAN trust is that T.A. Dodge loves his subject matter in all his works.I always speak of the dead in the present tense; if their works survive them and are still being read. There is no greater way to honor someone than to remember them well centuries past their time on Earth -- especially if they are still vital and have impact upon distant posterity. One such person is T.A. Dodge.I first read Warfare in the Age of Napoleon in the summer of 1964. I was in Austin; Texas to make a comic movie short subject called; The Heisters that trailed with A High Wind in Jamaica with Anthony Quinn the following year. I had gone to the University of Texas Library; saw this work by Dodge (then as four volumes instead of the current six); checked them out and proceeded to read. I never read anything I ever enjoyed more! It was the beginning of my remaining life's excursion through Napoleonic History; which also inspired me to start collecting military wargame miniatures and fighting table top battles over miniature; sculpted terrain. Actually; I started with Hannibal's Carthaginians and still game with ancients; but I also read T.A. Dodge's Hannibal; which really got me going! Wargaming has been my hobby ever since. It is the greatest hobby ever; bar none! I thank T.A. Dodge for it as much as I do H.G. Wells for being the man who popularized the old Prussian General Staff's "Kriegspiel" rules from 1870 and making it possible for the average English citizen to play wargames in their parlors and back yards in 1913. Wargaming is now a world-wide phenomenon. I am just now getting my own Napoleonic miniature armies in preparation to gaming out Napoleon's invasion of Russia campaign in 1812 in 15mm scale in this Bicentennial year of this epoch. I even have a miniature representative town for Borodino; including a model of the Orthodox Church still standing there today. I thank T.A; Dodge's works on Napoleon; as much as anyone else; for bringing me to this point in my life. I like to refer to my hobby as; "a magnificent; little spectacle."It should go without saying that every real man and boy (and the more intelligent women and girls) will find these six volumes by Dodge an utter joy to read! I could not recommend them more whitout becoming an idiot lunatic (which I might be in any case)!-- Mike England0 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Tough readBy DavidI did like the book. However; the struggle lies in the fact that it was written over a hundred years ago and it has not been re-edited for a modern reader; i.e. tons and tons of run on sentences. (Really marathon sentences). The writer is a US Civil War veteran and gives some very insightful views.
