TY - BOOK N2 - Historian Painter centers her momentous study of racial classification on the slave trade and the nation-building efforts which dominated the United States in the 18th century, when thinkers led by Ralph Waldo Emerson strove to explain the rapid progress of America within the context of white superiority. Her research is filled with frequent, startling realizations about how tenuous and temporary our racial classifications really are. AB - Historian Painter centers her momentous study of racial classification on the slave trade and the nation-building efforts which dominated the United States in the 18th century, when thinkers led by Ralph Waldo Emerson strove to explain the rapid progress of America within the context of white superiority. Her research is filled with frequent, startling realizations about how tenuous and temporary our racial classifications really are. T1 - The history of White people / DA - c2010. CY - New York, NY : AU - Painter, Nell Irvin. ET - 1st ed. CN - E184.A1 CN - E184.A1 PB - W.W. Norton, PP - New York, NY : PY - c2010. ID - 337478 KW - Whites KW - Whites SN - 9780393049343 SN - 0393049345 TI - The history of White people / ER -