Analysing the genealogy, meanings and political uses of the concepts of race and ethnicity, this volume draws on scholarship from philosophy, history, post-colonial studies, political theory and literary studies to explore the structure, status and scope of these concepts.

Race and ethnicity have become two of the most loaded and contested concepts in the contemporary world. This text aims to disentangle this complexity and guide the reader to a clearer understanding of the debates. Analysing the genealogy, meanings and political uses of the concepts of race and ethnicity, it draws on scholarship from philosophy, history, post-colonial studies, political theory and literary studies to explore the structure, status and scope of these concepts. The book outlines the ways in which a variety of disciplines have informed and shaped theories of questions of race and ethnicity, setting these broadly philosophical analyses within their social and historical context.

Introduction - Philosophies of Race and Ethnicity, Peter Osborne and Stella Sandford. Part I: Philosophy and Racial Identity, Linda Mart n Alcoff
Fanon, Phenomenology, Race, David Macey
Primordial Being - Enlightenment and the Indian Subject of Postcolonial Theory, Chetan Bhatt
Race and Language in the Two Saussures, Robert J. C. Young. Part II: Unspeakable Histories - Diasporic Lives in Old England, Bill Schwarz
Race, Colonialism, and History - China at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Rebecca E. Karl
Ethnicity and Species - On the Philosophy of the Multi-ethnic State in Japanese Imperialism, Naoki Sakai
On Chineseness as a Theoretical Problem, Rey Chow
Race and Slavery - The Politics of Recovery and Reparation, Francoise Verges
Rewriting the Black Subject - The Black Brazilian Emancipatory Text, Denise Ferreira da Silva.