THE CULTIVATION OF WHITENESS: Science, Health, and Racial Destiny in Australia

Anderson, an Australian now teaching the history of health sciences at the University of California, meticulously chronicles scientific ideas about race in Australia from the early 1800s through WWII, in the context of changing models of disease, new theories about heredity and the continent's maturation from a colony into a nation. As experts on the body, physicians and medical scientists claimed expertise on issues of race. During the frontier days, Australia's environment appeared hostile to British bodies, and physicians recommended guidelines for diet, clothing, housing and hygiene. Even after the acceptance of the germ theory in the 1880s, Anderson argues, physicians continued to link personal and racial health to an Anglo-European Protestant ideal of civilized, moral conduct. Contrasting this ideal with the habits of allegedly germ-infested "colored races," they called for the containment of Aboriginals and restricted immigration for Asians and Pacific Islanders. In the same way, evolution and genetics in the early 20th century were evoked to justify eugenic intervention. Anderson detects a shift in attitudes during the 1920s and '30s, when, he reports, comparative studies led to the unexpected conclusion that whites and Aboriginals were both Caucasian. Hopefully, if rather unconvincingly, Anderson presents this idea as a first step toward multiculturalism and self-determination. Though serious intellectual history, daunting even for academic readers, Anderson's monograph on the pressing topic of race merits attention. B&w photos. (May 15)

Forecast: This has been awarded the first Basic Prize in History of Science; it will undoubtedly receive attention in major review media and gain a foothold in whiteness studies. But its density—and price—will limit readership.