"Whitewashing America" by Bridget T. Heneghan

A patron was kind enough to send me some cash to review “Whitewashing America: Material Culture and Race in the Antebellum Imagination” published in 2003 by Bridget T. Heneghan. Published in 2003, the text precedes the modern “woke academy” discourse, while still being very much apart of a progressive understanding of race. Material culture in itself, as the author explains, looks at the actual artifacts of the time and how they developed the cultural consciousness and understanding of high culture, race, and specifically “whiteness.” There’s a lot in here that I dig apart but the historical examination of material culture is something we should do a lot more of in our day to day understandings of ourselves and our enemies. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theprudentialist.substack.com/subscribe