The modern ideology of race, so important in twentieth-century Europe, incorporates both a theory of human societies and a theory of human bodies. Ian Campbell's new study examines how the elite in early modern Ireland spoke about human societies and human bodies, and demonstrates that this elite discourse was grounded in a commitment to the languages and sciences of Renaissance Humanism. Emphasising the education of all of early modern Ireland's antagonistic ethnic groups in common European university and grammar school traditions, Campbell explains both the workings of the learned English critique of Irish society, and the no less learned Irish response. Then he turns to Irish debates on nobility, medicine and theology in order to illuminate the problem of human heredity. He concludes by demonstrating how the Enlightenment swept away these humanist theories of body and society, prior to the development of modern racial ideology in the late eighteenth century.

About the Author
Ian Campbell is a postdoctoral fellow in the Centre for Neo-Latin Studies, University College Cork


Book Information
ISBN 9780719088360
Author Ian Campbell
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Weight(grams) 576g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 19mm