Romance of Race

JOLIE A. SHEFFER is an associate professor of English and affiliated faculty in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Mulattos, Mysticism, and Marriage: African American Identity and Psychic Integration2. Half-Caste Family Romances: Divergent Paths of Asian American Identity3. The Mexican Mestizo/a in the Mexican American Imaginary4. Half-Breeds and Homesteaders: Native/American Alliances in the West5. Blood and Blankets: Americanizing European Immigrants through Cultural Miscegenation and Textile ReproductionConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

"The Romance of Race [is] Jolie A Sheffer’s excellent rendition of the means by which 'belonging,' that is, creating a coherent nation out of immigrants, took place during the great immigration from southern and eastern Europe" - Toni Morrison (author of "Beloved," "Song of Solomon," and "The Bluest Eye") "The Romance of Race [is] Jolie A Sheffer’s excellent rendition of the means by which 'belonging,' that is, creating a coherent nation out of immigrants, took place during the great immigration from southern and eastern Europe" - Toni Morrison (author of "Beloved," "Song of Solomon," and "The Bluest Eye") "Crisply written and convincingly argued, The Romance of Race is a sharp piece of literary and cultural analysis. I highly recommend it." - Sarah E. Chinn (author of Technology and the Logic of American Racism) "Crisply written and convincingly argued, The Romance of Race is a sharp piece of literary and cultural analysis. I highly recommend it." - Sarah E. Chinn (author of Technology and the Logic of American Racism) "A smart and important book, The Romance of Race empowers its reader to rethink the structures of the genealogy of family, nation, and race along with the pathbreaking women writers it examines." - Laura Wexler (Yale University) "A smart and important book, The Romance of Race empowers its reader to rethink the structures of the genealogy of family, nation, and race along with the pathbreaking women writers it examines." - Laura Wexler (Yale University) "A fine work of scholarship that highlights the social, economic, and cultural dynamism associated with the literary and historical analysis of race, gender, and sexuality in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America."(Journal of American History) "A fine work of scholarship that highlights the social, economic, and cultural dynamism associated with the literary and historical analysis of race, gender, and sexuality in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America."(Journal of American History) "Many mainstream Americans grudgingly concede that racial and ethnic minorities are entitled to equal rights in politics, education, employment, and residency but still draw the line where marriage, family, and sexual relations are concerned ... In her fascinating path-breaking study, Jolie A. Sheffer convincingly argues that one of the earliest and boldest challenges to that insulated worldview came from female writers and reformers of color." (The Historian) "Many mainstream Americans grudgingly concede that racial and ethnic minorities are entitled to equal rights in politics, education, employment, and residency but still draw the line where marriage, family, and sexual relations are concerned ... In her fascinating path-breaking study, Jolie A. Sheffer convincingly argues that one of the earliest and boldest challenges to that insulated worldview came from female writers and reformers of color." (The Historian)