"[A]n important collection of essays on the history of race in France. . . . Peabody and Stovall's collection is a very welcome addition. . . . [I]ts engagement with larger questions of race and empire make it an important read for anyone interested in the histories of modern France, identity formation, or colonialism." — Rebecca Hartkopf Schloss , Journal of Colonialism & Colonial History
"[E]xcellent and eclectic essays on both historical and contemporary France. To this reader all the essays in the later three parts of the volume are worth reading - they are all well written, lucid, contain interesting subject matter and are informative." — Vanita Seth , Thesis Eleven
"[T]hese essays, with their American perspective, offer new insights into race in French history and may contribute to a French re-examination of race and racism within the land of universal human rights." — Kim Munholland, H-France, H-Net Reviews
"This volume has much, as Fred Constant writes in his Foreword, to offer 'anyone interested in French studies and in contemporary dilemmas surrounding issues of equality, cultural diversity, and the practice of citizenship.'" — Roger Little, L’Esprit Créateur
"[These] seminal essays frame important questions about French 'histories of race' and contribute to our general understanding of the role race plays in shaping the modern world." — David H. Slavin, American Historical Review
“‘The French are not racists like the Americans!’ ‘But are they French racists?’ All of us, both French and American observers, have been bedeviled by some variant of this exchange I once had about the homeland of universal equality. This collection of transatlantic essays is the first systematic sounding of the praxis of race in French history. The contributions by American, Caribbean, and European-French specialists are universally fascinating and smart. The Color of Liberty is now the best thing on the subject in any language. We need it.” — Herman Lebovics, author of True France: The Wars over Cultural Identity, 1900–1945
“According to some observers, color-coded racism is an American problem that the French have, for the most part, managed to avoid. This fine collection of essays raises considerable doubt about that assumption. The authors show that race has been constructed somewhat differently in the two republics, but also demonstrate that the French, like the Americans, have often failed to live up to their own egalitarian principles when it came to relations with people whom they considered nonwhite.”
— George M. Fredrickson, author of Racism: A Short History
“Enfin! Stovall and Peabody take up the call to place race at the center of French history and enlist a range of skilled scholars to show its tenacious filaments and deeply French roots. This volume gives substance to the diverse genealogies of racisms in the making of France while accounting for their troubling contemporary presence.” — Ann L. Stoler, author of Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault’s History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things