How have ideas about white women figured in the history of racism? Vron Ware argues that they have been central, and that feminism has largely developed as a political movement within racist societies. Dissecting the different meanings of femininity and womanhood, Beyond the Pale examines the political connections between black and white women, both in contemporary society and in history, including the anti-slavery movement. A major contribution to anti-racist work, Beyond the Pale confronts the historical meanings of whiteness as a way of overcoming the moralism that so often infuses anti-racist movements.

VRON WARE is the author of Military Migrants: Fighting for YOUR Country, and a research fellow at the Center for Research on Sociocultural Change, and the Center for Citizenship, Identities and Governance at The Open University.