Brantlinger (English, Indiana U.) examines contradictions in the racist and imperialist ideology of Victorians who saw civilization as an unattainable goal for nonwhite people, yet viewed
civilizing other races as the justification for imperialism. He investigates racist stereotypes in Victorian literature and culture and how these conceptions helped Victorians categorize
humans. He examines ideas of cannibalism, missionaries and humanitarians, savage and barbarian behaviors and cultures, perceptions of the Irish, and how race affected social and political
controversies, including Benjamin Disraeli's racist interpretations of history and politics, and the rise of science fiction and the Victorian response to evolution and machines, with
discussion of texts such as Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Thomas Williams's Fiji and the Fijians, James Bonwick's Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man,
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Matthew Arnold's "On the Study of Celtic Literature," H. Rider Haggard's She, Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden," Bram Stoker's Dracula, and H.G.
Wells's The War of the Worlds. Annotation 穢2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
