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Traces the history of the category of race in history & historiography from ancient Egypt to the present. It is observed that the extreme ethnic heterogeneity & ethnocentrism of ancient Egypt began to change around 500 BC, when darker pigmentation became associated with ugliness & slavery. At this point, blackness increasingly became associated with Muslims, who were generally reviled in the Christian world. Modern racism is described as beginning from the first 15th-century contact between Europeans & Africans in the context of the system of slavery. Modern historiography since the 17th century is shown to have been conditioned by the context of slavery & racism to exclude Africans & African history from the pantheon of great historical events. It is concluded that contemporary historians would do well to focus on the interaction & mixture of the races rather than their isolation if they are to develop responsible & accurate historical accounts of the past & present. D. M. Smith

"This chapter has two objectives. It first gives a brief overview of the history of political communication research and then discusses the basic idea, limitations and structure of this volume. The chapter argues that questions of political communication have been addressed since ancient times and throughout the centuries by scholars of various disciplines. Moreover, questions of political communication have been a major topic and driving force for the establishment of (mass) communication research as an academic discipline of its own. However, it was not until mass communication research began to flourish and become more diverse in the second half of the 20th century that researchers began to identify themselves as political communication researchers. As a contrast to the myths surrounding the early beginnings of the field, this brief account tries to paint a more realistic and comprehensive picture of the development of the field, also addressing the criticism that has been voiced regarding its history and development." (publisher's description)

In a response to criticism regarding Delacampagne's L'Invention du racism ([The Invention of Racism] 1983), its author discusses the historical links between European rationalism & racism. It is argued that the foundations of racism can be traced to theory of the Middle Ages & ancient philosophers, & that racism developed & flourished in the midst of a system of thought that strove toward rationality. Although it is conceded that manifestations of racism throughout history have differed as a result of historical context, examples as diverse as the writings of Greek philosophers & a multitude of anti-Jewish campaigns evidence a similar claim of cultural superiority rooted in a belief of physiological superiority. Regarding the link between racism & rationalism, it is suggested that, throughout history, science has frequently been used as a means of legitimizing racism. However, these justifications involve a distortion of true science, & it is concluded that true rationality leads to both a recognition of the biological diversity of races & an understanding of the need to eliminate racism. T. Sevier