Races on Display: French Representations of Colonized Peoples, 1886-1940 - Paperback

by Dana S. Hale (Author)

While European commerce in race was substantial, the colonial trade in ideas of race was highly profitable as well. Looking at official propaganda and commercial representations in France during the Third Republic, this book explores the way the French increased the value of their racial identity at home at the expense of their colonized brothers and sisters. The French did not create the identity-effacing stereotypes of Africans, Arabs, and Indochinese. Instead they refined or remolded these images, and as they did so they redefined and remolded their images of themselves. Focusing on world's fairs, colonial expositions, and mundane manufacturers' trademarks, Races on Display shows not only the prevalence of racial stereotypes, but also how complex these representations prove to be.

Author Biography

Dana S. Hale received her Ph.D. in Comparative History from Brandeis University and taught history at Howard University from 1998 to 2005. She is author of several essays.