Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth (📔book)

[Ugluk]

Anyone read this book so I don't have to?

Tolkien, Race, and Racism in Middle-earth

This book is the first systematic examination of how Tolkien understood racial issues and how race manifests in his oeuvre.

link.springer.com

 

[Deimos]

With a title like that I don't have to read the book to know that the author is going to pillory The Professor seven ways from Sunday.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

It's actually a little more nuanced than that, according to a couple of more scholarly reviews:

https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3138&context=mythlore

https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1282&context=journaloftolkienresearch

one of the reviews points out that the author is a historian, rather than a literary critic, which can lead to some blind spots. At $129 from Amazon, I won't be buying it either.

 

[Deimos]

It's actually a little more nuanced than that, according to a couple of more scholarly reviews:

https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3138&context=mythlore

https://scholar.valpo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1282&context=journaloftolkienresearch

one of the reviews points out that the author is a historian, rather than a literary critic, which can lead to some blind spots. At $129 from Amazon, I won't be buying it either.

Is he maybe a historian afflicted with "presentism"? He wouldn't be the first, junuea...

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Again, judging from the reviews, he defends Tolkien against charges of racism, but I haven't read it.