A good point that’s not quite worth the wait

Reviewing Theodore W. Allen's The Invention of the White Race: The Origin of Racial Oppression by J. Tayler Smith

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It's not worth the wait

When I was young my family went to a theme in California that I had always wanted to visit. After we arrived and went through the park gates, I insisted that we wait in line for the first ride we came across. The line was long, and I was sure that meant the ride was a visitor favourite. We waited, and waited, and waited - for nearly an hour we waited. Finally, it was our turn. We were let onto the ride and we prepared to see what all the anticipation had built up to. Less than a minute later, we walked off bored and let down. I’m sure that ride itself wasn’t that bad, but the wait was hardly worth the payoff. This is how I felt after reading The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen.

Don’t get me wrong, Allen’s book has good content and is still relevant. However, it is long and drawn out, without any payoff until the very end. It is also inaccessible to most audiences because Allen writes in a very technical way that is more appealing to academia than the average reader. It feels like there is something worth understanding in this book, but for most, the payoff is hardly worth the time and challenge. Even those who complete the book will still have difficulty processing the main takeaway.

From cheap labour to slavery

The central thesis of Allen’s work is that the term ‘white’, as applied to lighter coloured skin, was invented in the 1700s and 1800s as a way for European-descended Americans to exert social dominance over African-Americans and other ‘non-white’ peoples. The book consists of two volumes, the first explores the origins of racial oppression as a concept, and the second focuses on the racial oppression of African-Americans. Both volumes are necessary for fully understanding Allen’s argument, but his thesis is only really addressed in the second volume.

The first volume examines the history of Great Britain’s oppression of Ireland throughout the renaissance, enlightenment, and colonial periods. The point of this volume is to establish how racial oppression is not historically based on skin colour and how it instead has roots in other attributes that differentiate people groups, such as history, culture, and religion. Second, the first volume also defines what racial oppression looks like - this is important because it allows Allen to later point to the moment when the oppression of African-Americans became based on skin colour rather than the oppression of labourers.

The second volume focuses on the development of oppression in the early founding of the United States. Allen goes through the historical record of colonising the continent and finds that no specific racial oppression initially occurred with the earliest colonists' arrival. Instead, there was a need for cheap labour so that the colonies could produce competitively priced goods - without cheap labour the colonies would have failed since they would have otherwise been unprofitable. This need initially drove early colonists to seek labourers (of any skin colour) at a cheap labour price. Later, this evolved into having labourers provide a few years of unpaid labour to pay off their debt for crossing to the new world. These periods were later extended upwards to seven, ten, and even twenty years of unpaid service - this partially came about by ensuring labourers were charged for petty crimes where their sentences included more unpaid labour. Eventually, this transformed into lifetime servitude, which set the scene for introducing full-on slavery to the colonies. At first, this included people of all ethnic backgrounds, but later the colonists justified the poor treatment of labourers based on skin colour. Essentially, the term ‘white’ as it's used in describing people, was invented to justify the need for cheap labour through enslavement.

The Invention of the White Race APPRAISED

'Appraising’ this book is not a difficult task; however, it does not quite fit nicely into every category since it is a work of history. For instance, an academic history book is not naturally ‘artistic’ as I have defined it here. It is also challenging to describe whether the book is ‘decent’ since history tends to recount several indecent acts, but rarely in a gratuitous way. Nevertheless, I still feel it is important to utilise these metrics in my review. I describe my APPRAISED method in more detail in prior reviews.

Accuracy

The book is accurate in how it recounts history and uses several sources to verify what is fact. Allen frequently cites original documents and compares the contrasting written accounts of previous historians of the era to compile a complete and compelling history of racial oppression. One would be hard-pressed to argue against Allen’s account of what occurred, when, and why.

Praiseworthiness

Although not all people would like it, I think it is necessary for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of the United States to read this book, especially as it pertains to race issues. I would also go out of my way to tell others what I learned from this book - about how the origin of racial oppression, especially in the United States, is rooted in the want of cheap labour. I also see how this book may be praised by academics who specialise in this area of history. Allen’s work feels complete - even though his main point is not fully addressed until the final chapter.

Proficiency

Allen is an accomplished historian and author; his work here is very academic and he writes with a tone and preciseness akin to an extended academic research paper. It is evident that the author is both interested and an expert in his field. He succinctly summarises what could be the entirety of Irish history in the first volume, and American colonial history in the other, all the while focusing on the topics of oppression. His book is truly an accomplishment in its own right.

Reverence

Allen treats history as a reality, he does not beat around the bush and he is straightforward in describing the oppression of people throughout history. Allen depicts oppressors as those making reasonable and rational decisions that eventually lead to their oppressive regimes - oppression begins as an unbiased need for cheap labour and evolves into something far more sinister. The oppressed, in contrast, are depicted as truly victimised people who had little choice in the matter. They are not irrational - they rationally took the opportunities provided to them - however, their 'choices' were often only between two options that both benefited their oppressors. While this can present the oppressors in poor light, it showcases Allen's respect for historical accuracy and the need to treat people with dignity and reverence. Furthermore, he presents a chilling history that reveals how easy it is to justify oppression; it makes one wonder to what degree we ourselves are oppressors without fully realising it.

Artistry

Allen writes in a very academic way - he is dry, long-winded, and uses terminology beyond most readers' general understanding. He is not an artistic writer and is a challenge to understand at times. His sentences are long and filled with long words that limit the book's accessibility to the average reader. Simply put, this is not a fun read, it is a book one has to work at

Integrity

Allen is very transparent with history and earnestly showcases the good, the bad, and the ugly; this helps his work come across as an endeavour of historical integrity. He rightly shows the terrible and tragic consequences of national greed and desire for gain. Allen reveals how oppressors utilise whatever means necessary to achieve their aim. He does not hide behind the romanticism of the era - he depicts the founding of the American colonies in a brutal reality. The nation’s founding was hard, full of death and despair, constant battles against nature, and a constant need to endure troubling times. For instance, Allen highlights how after one brutal year, the remaining colonists at Jamestown (who numbered less than 100) agreed to abandon the colony and return to England. They left, and only returned because they were intercepted by a British ship bringing more colonists to Jamestown. Those trying to leave were forced to return. As this example shows, Allen is not concerned with the romanticism of colonial America.

Superbness

It cannot be said that this book is superb for general audiences; perhaps it reaches these heights in the academic world, but most others will find themselves bored and lost with this book- which is a shame because the content feels very relevant. I continued reading the book because I thought I would learn something of tremendous value from it. However, I did not find this the case, but perhaps I was hoping for more than what the book could give. It is primarily academic and does not necessarily speak to a greater scope of life.

Enjoyability

Most readers will find reading this book an act of work rather than a relaxing enjoyment. It takes work and patience to read. I was first excited to read Allen's book, based on its premise alone. However, this feeling was replaced after the first couple of chapters. I realised that the majority of the book is simply an extended preamble to the main point - the ‘invention of the white race’ itself does not occur until the very last chapter. Unfortunately, you do have to read the whole book to understand how this ‘invention’ even came to be. I suppose this is the author's intention, but I felt at times as though Allen had forgotten his main point until the very end.

Decency

llen does provide some graphic descriptions of day-to-day life in both Ireland and the pre-United States ‘new world’. However, these could hardly be characterised as indecent since they are presented as real and necessary history that helps the reader understand the oppression that took place in these eras. For example, Allen describes brutal living conditions, assaults, rape, and other atrocities that are almost unimaginable today. However, he uses these stories to emphasise the brutality of oppression - they are never gratuitous.

You have to work for it

In summary, Allen separates his work into two volumes - the first defines oppression, and the second applies it to colonial America. The book is a work of academia, and it shows. It is written in a way that is complex, historically accurate, dry, relatively unbiased, and wordy, making it inaccessible to the average reader. This is a shame because the general content of the book is interesting and it gives one better context for the colonial history of the United States. I wish the book was written in a more accessible way, but I suppose one who really wants what Allen has to offer will put in the work for it. For these reasons, I give the book six out of nine stars. There is good content to be found here, but you have to work very hard for it. For most, that work will not be worth the payoff.

References

Allen, Theodore W. 2021. The Invention of the White Race: The Origin of Racial Oppression. Vol. 1-2. 2 vols. New York, New York: Verso.