Book excerpt: "How have definitions of race varied and changed over time? What impact have religion, science and politics had on race throughout history, and how has our concept of it been changed as a result? These ambitious questions are answered by 61 experts who - drawing on perspectives from history, sociology, anthropology, literature and medical humanities - deepen our understanding of how race has developed conceptually and in reality between antiquity and the present day. Individual volume editors ensure the cohesion of the whole, and to make it as easy as possible to use, chapter titles are identical across each of the volumes. This gives the choice of reading about a specific period in one of the volumes, or following a theme across history by reading the relevant chapter in each of the six. The six volumes cover: 1. Antiquity (500 BCE - 800 CE); 2. Middle Ages (800 - 1350); 3. Renaissance and Early Modern Age (1350 - 1550) ; 4. Reformation and Enlightenment (1550 - 1760); 5. Age of Empire and Nation State (1760 - 1920); 6. Modern and Genomic Age (1920 - 2000+). Themes (and chapter titles) are: Definitions of Race; Race, Environment and Culture; Race and Religion; Race and Science; Race and Politics; Race and Ethnicity; Race and Gender; Race and Body; and Anti-Race. The page extent is approximately 1,728 pp. with c. 300 illustrations. Each volume opens with notes on contributors, a series preface and an introduction, and concludes with notes, bibliography and an index. The Cultural Histories Series A Cultural History of Race is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available both as printed hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a one-off purchase and tangible reference for their shelves, or as part of a fully-searchable digital library available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com)"--