Typecasting: On the Arts and Sciences of Human Inequality

by Elizabeth Ewen, Stuart Ewen

Typecasting chronicles the emergence of the "science of first impression" and reveals how the work of its creators—early social scientists—continues to shape how we see the world and to inform our most fundamental and unconscious judgments of beauty, humanity, and degeneracy. In this groundbreaking exploration of the growth of stereotyping amidst the rise of modern society, authors Ewen & Ewen demonstrate "typecasting" as a persistent cultural practice. Drawing on fields as diverse as history, pop culture, racial science, and film, and including over one hundred images, many published here for the first time, the authors present a vivid portrait of stereotyping as it was forged by colonialism, industrialization, mass media, urban life, and the global economy.

Genres: History, Race, Nonfiction, Sociology, Science, Cultural, Art

576 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[April Gain]

This book is astonishingly well researched and is likely to fundamentally change your perceptions on systemic racism.

[gadabout]

Shockingly, the same book that provides fantastic insight on inequality and bias, attempts to argue that describing mammals by their mammaries is a blow to women.

[Isadora]

Required for DNA class- This book is very informative. I just read the chapter "Moron's in our midst" and it is frighteningly scary. American used to use Eugenics (pure white race) to forcefully sterilize/incarcerate any human being they thought qualified as a Moron (after taking their very biased/classist test- or after a glance of just "knowing"). So scary Rockerfeller was one of them- these guys were the pre Nazis- The Nazis used all of their information and arguments for cleansing their own culture.

[Ken]

Wow! I went into this book without a clue as to what I wanted to get out of it. At first, reading about the authors, I thought I would put it down immediately. They seemed more liberal than I would care for. But once I started, I couldn't put it down until I finished. This book was really well written and holds a lot of information about how we have come to where we are as a society. Best of all, I finally learned why I'm labeled as a Caucasian. Now I really don't want to check that box.

[Sharon]

Took me three years to finish this book but it was worth it! One of the most influential history/cultural studies books I've come across. Excellently details the history of racial science as well as the popular culture developed to create and cement stereotypes. If anyone wants to read a comprehensive history of modern stereotyping in the West, this is the book for you.

[Jenni]

Loved this! Smart, well-researched book by two terrific historians (and husband-wife team! how did two married academics do this without killing each other?)on the various forms of prejudice that have imapacted science, art, pop culture, etc.

[Nilagia]

Very interesting read on how images constructed back in the day in what used to be called "science" -- for example studies of phrenology, the exhibition of "exotic" peoples -- fostered the developments of stereotypes and images in popular culture that are still with us today.

[Troy]

Wow. The history of these stereotypes, the physiology and effort that went into justifying superiority and inferiority is laid in detail. A REALLY thick book, and very illuminating.

[D. Travers]

So far a good survey / summary of a lot of other material/concepts out there (Sander Gilman, Freud, Foucault, Galton, Fred Turner, ). Feeling like a useful undergrad textbook