The very ubiquity of race & racial discussions encourages the general public to accept the power it exerts as natural & to allow the process by which it has assumed such authority to remain unquestioned. In this study, Denise McCoskey explains the position of race today by unveiling its relation to structures of thought & practice in classical antiquity. This study thus attempts both to account for the role of race in the classical world & also to trace the intricate ways Greek & Roman racial ideologies continue to resonate in modern life. McCoskey uncovers the assorted frameworks that organized & classified human diversity more fundamentally in antiquity. Along the way, she highlights the noteworthy intersections of race with other important social structures, such as gender & class. Underlining the role of race in shaping the ancient world, she ultimately turns to the influence of ancient racial formation on the modern world as well, an influence mediated by the receptions & appropriations of classical antiquity, borrowings that serve to shore up modernity & its continuing, albeit complex, juxtapositions of past & present. In this deft study, McCoskey provides a touchstone for thinking more critically about race's many sites of operation in both ancient & modern eras. Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction Racial Theory Race as Social Practice Racial Representations Whose History? Afterword Some Suggestions for Further Reading Notes Index