Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History

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Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Edited by Martha Hodes. (New York and London: New York University Press, c. 1999. Pp. xvi, 542. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 0-8147-3557-6; cloth, $75.00, ISBN 0-8147-3556-8.)

In editing this collection, Martha Hodes has performed an invaluable service to those of us in the profession who endeavor to teach what has been the focus of our own scholarship: race and sex. Hodes has marshaled twenty-four engaging essays that--despite traversing time, region, and ethnicity--serve to make two important arguments. First, the volume convincingly demonstrates the futility of latching onto racial categories. These essays collectively defy, subvert, co-opt, and contest placement of historical subjects into neat boxes of racial and ethnic identity. Second, while custom and law may have snookered many historians enamored with racial classifications into believing that distinct racial boundaries effectively cordoned off groups from one …