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Katherine Ellinghaus, Gregory D. Smithers. Science, Sexuality, and Race in the United States and Australia, 1780s-1890s.(Routledge Advances in American History.) New York: Routledge. 2009. Pp. xvi, 298. $95.00, The American Historical Review, Volume 115, Issue 1, February 2010, Pages 195–196, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.115.1.195
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In the last ten or so years, historians have increasingly used a global perspective when exploring the histories of settler societies. Gregory D. Smithers's argument that white identity from the 1780s to the 1890s in the United States was a fragile biological category, while in Australia it was seen as robustly transformative, is an important contribution to this body of scholarly research. By interrogating scientific theories and using focused, comparative case studies, his book shows how fluid and fickle the category of “whiteness” could be, even as it nominally united many different settler groups.
Smithers utilizes both comparative and transnational analytical frameworks. Transnational history is often seen as the successor to comparative history, but Smithers shows how well they can work together, particularly with carefully selected case studies. As he points out, “the United States and Australia featured prominently in the popular literature and international scholarly debates about the biological and cultural meaning of whiteness” (p. 1). By examining them together and not shying from the vast, often seemingly incomparable particularities of each site, Smithers offers a comprehensive discussion of the global circulation of ideas about race and reproduction. He also demonstrates how the best of comparative/transnational history is anything but neat.
