"Fascinating. a terrific volume that will be eye-opening to academics and -general readers alike."- Publishers Weekly "In Typecasting, two ace historians offer a profound and sweeping study of the most every-day, often unconscious, forms of prejudice. [It's] bound to make you think-and think again."-Barbara Ehrenreich "With great wit and dark irony, the Ewens remind us that modern culture has been a sinkhole of pseudo-scientific stereotype and racial hallucination. Few books so properly deserve the title of required reading."-Mike Davis "An absolute 'must-have' for sociology shelves, enthusiastically recommended for public and college libraries alike."- Midwest Book Review In this monumental work of popular history, Elizabeth and Stuart Ewen vividly expose the pivotal developments that have made stereotypes a persistent, common language.

Moving across centuries and continents in thirty eloquent vignettes, the authors not only illuminate the incubation of modern stereotypes in the halls of science and aesthetics but also trace their materialization in the popular imagination. Drawing upon sources as diverse as museum archives, popular magazines, and film, the authors reveal how stereotypes have served as the groundwork for power in the modern world.