The Cultivation of Whiteness: Science, Health, and Racial Destiny in Australia

by Warwick Anderson

The Cultivation of Whiteness is an award-winning history of scientific ideas about race and place in Australia from the time of the first European settlement through World War II. Chronicling the extensive use of biological theories and practices in the construction and “protection” of whiteness, Warwick Anderson describes how a displaced “Britishness” (or whiteness) was defined by scientists and doctors in relation to a harsh, strange environment and in opposition to other races. He also provides the first account of extensive scientific experimentation in the 1920s and 1930s on poor whites in tropical Australia and on Aboriginal people in the central deserts. “[Anderson] writes with passion, wit, and panache, and the principal virtues of The Cultivation of Whiteness are the old-fashioned ones of thoroughness, accuracy, and impeccable documentation. . . . [His] sensitive study is a model of how contentious historical issues can be confronted.”—W. F. Bynum, Times Literary Supplement “One of the virtues of The Cultivation of Whiteness is that it brings together aspects of Australian life and history that are now more often separated—race and environment, blood and soil, medicine and geography, tropical science and urban health, biological thought and national policy, Aboriginality and immigration, the body and the mind. The result is a rich and subtle history of ideas that is both intellectual and organic, and that vividly evokes past states of mind and their lingering, haunting power.”—Tom Griffiths, Sydney Morning Herald

Genres: Race, Australia, History, Anthropology

400 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Raz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subject matter is quite interesting, but the academic style of writing is really dry and REALLY hard to slog through a lot of the time.

I also found it kind of uncomfortable how the author never really challenges the blatant racism that drove us to try and overtly exterminate or assimilate the Aboriginal population for so long. I get why he didn't, as this book is really a record of history more than a statement about it, but it still left me feeling uncomfortable.

This would be a great study resource, but unless you're SUPER into Australian history I wouldn't recommend reading it otherwise.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredibly dense but (for me) worth the slog. The book reiterates and crystallizes in great detail the artificiality of whiteness... the immense institutional effort and force that goes into producing and reproducing, packaging and repackaging, normalizing and invisibilizing whiteness (as a measure of health and citizenship).

Definitely a great read for history buffs.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book. Undeniably very challenging and dense to read but so so worth it to understand the deep-seated racial origins of Australian national visions. Anderson traces the entirety of medical and anthropological racial theory in Australia from early environmental anxieties, to germ anxieties to the white australia policy and stolen generations. At times in the middle it gets uncomfortable reading as there seems no escape from continuous racism but then we’re reminded in the conclusion of Anderson’s brilliant vision of how race science was fundamentally incorrect and a pseudoscience, as well as revealing that even at the worst of times there was diversity of opinion and those who disagreed (even if only in part) with racist theories or ideas.

It is a challenging book and may incredibly bore some people. However if the topic interests you and have a background in academia or Australian colonial history, particularly in Queensland, or an interest in the racial theories behind the stolen generations, then the book will be extremely valuable and important.