AHR Forum Essay
Colonialism and Race

Read messages from the online discussion of this article, held Sept. 3-17, 2001, in which the author responds to postings.

Historians have long been aware of the way that ideas about race can facilitate and be changed by colonial projects. Few efforts have been made, however, to move between different times and places and analyze the varied forms of the relationship between racial categories and systems of domination linked to imperialism. This is what Patrick Wolfe does in this year's AHR Forum Essay. The specific sites that interest him are Australia, Latin America, and the United States, and the groups defined by colonizers as racial "others" that he discusses include both indigenous populations and slaves brought from distant lands. This piece brings together in a novel way work that historians have done on each of the settings that interests Wolfe, but his goal is to do more than show how patterns diverge and intersect—though that is certainly one of his concerns. He also wants to show, via this particular foray into comparison focusing on land and race, what a new kind of cross-colonial history might look like. His piece, therefore, invites responses from not only specialists in the study of imperialism and racial categories but also anyone concerned with methodologies of comparative history.	1
Due to its sweep and the provocative nature of some of the author's arguments, Wolfe's analysis seems ideally suited for the Forum Essay format inaugurated last year in these pages. Prior to 2000, we would publish a small number of responses to a Forum Essay in the October issue of the AHR, but last year we switched to an online format, which allowed us to open the discussion even further. This time, again, we encourage interested readers to participate in a moderated electronic discussion between the author and those who wish to comment. The discussion with Wolfe will take place September 3–17 on our web site at www.historycooperative.org. Participants can send questions or comments of up to 700 words. After the discussion has concluded, the exchanges will become a permanent part of the electronic version of this Forum Essay.	2

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