White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812
Winthrop D. Jordan
In 1968, Winthrop D. Jordan set out in encyclopedic detail the evolution of white Englishmen’s and Anglo-Americans' perceptions of blacks, perceptions of difference used to justify race-based slavery, and liberty and justice for whites only. This second edition, with new forewords by historians Christopher Leslie Brown and Peter H. Wood, reminds us that Jordan’s text is still the definitive work on the history of race in America in the colonial era. Every book published to this day on slavery and racism builds upon his work; all are judged in comparison to it; none has surpassed it.
Award History
4 wins · 4 total
| Award | Year | Result | Category / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bancroft PrizeMajor | 1969 | Winner | Official source |
| National Book Award for History and BiographyMajor | 1969 | Winner | Secondary source |
| Francis Parkman Prize | 1969 | Winner | Secondary source |
| Phi Beta Kappa Book Awards: Ralph Waldo Emerson Award | 1968 | Winner | Official source |
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies
This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.
01 Central figures
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.
- Christopher Leslie Brown36%
- Peter H. Wood36%
02 Central places
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
03 Suggested argument
Jordan argues that evolving white Anglo-American perceptions of blacks functioned as justification for race-based slavery while supporting “liberty and justice for whites only.”
Model confidence 66%
04 Reading orientation
72 / 100 academicAcademic
An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.
Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 63%.