What Does 'Caucasian' Mean?

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the 19th Century, a war on the boundary between Europe and Asia had an unexpected effect. It caused the American public to re-examine one of the terms with which they described race: Caucasian.

Don Wildman is joined for this episode by the award-winning art historian Sarah Lewis. They explore how the term Caucasian came to be associated with whiteness, and how photography was fundamental to unpicking this myth.

Sarah is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is also the founder of the Vision & Justice initiative and author of the book discussed here: 'The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America'.

Produced and edited by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign here for up to 50% for 3 months using code AMERICANHISTORY.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Natalia Melman Petrazzella, and from the BBC, this is extreme, peak danger.
0:07.0	The most beautiful mountain in the world.
0:09.6	If you die on the mountain, you stay on the mountain.
0:14.1	This is the story of what happened when 11 climbers died on one of the world's deadliest mountains, K2,
0:24.0	and of the risks we'll take to feel truly alive.
0:27.9	If I tell all the details, you won't believe it anymore.
0:30.3	Extreme, peak danger.
0:32.5	Listen, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:40.8	Hello, all, just a note for me before we get into this. This episode contains outdated strong language, which has been used for historical context and accuracy.
0:48.7	New York, 1855. Gas lights flicker as the physician Dr. James McCune-Smith leans over his writing desk.
1:00.4	Trained at the prestigious University of Glasgow in Scotland,
1:03.8	Smith is an accomplished doctor and scholar,
1:06.4	the first African-American to earn a medical degree.
1:10.0	He spends his workdays at his New York practice
1:12.4	and tending the needs of the children in Manhattan. But at the same time, he is a trailblazer
1:18.1	in the American Geographical Society, founder of the New York Statistics Institute, and a co-architect
1:24.2	of the Radical Abolitionist party alongside Frederick Douglass.
1:28.7	As he writes, crafting an introduction to Douglas' second-volume autobiography,
1:33.6	My Bondage and My Freedom, Smith praises his friend and ally,
1:37.7	using the opportunity to note a shift in current discourse around the subject of race.
1:43.7	The once dominant term Caucasian, traditionally employed to source the geographic homeland of the white
1:49.2	race, is falling out of favor among ethnologists.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -15 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.