Forthcoming with Other Press in February 2026
Over the course of the eighteenth century, Christianity began to loosen its grip on the story of humankind. Yet centuries of xenophobia, religious intolerance, and proto-biological speculation were not cast aside. Instead, this raw material was increasingly reworked by secularly minded thinkers intent on redefining what it meant to be human. By 1800, Enlightenment naturalists and classifiers had sorted humanity into rigid racial categories for the first time in history.
Prize-winning biographer Andrew S. Curran retraces this misunderstood history through the lives and ideas of thirteen pivotal figures. Moving from the gilded halls of Versailles to the slave plantations of the Caribbean, from the court of the Mughal Empire to the drawing rooms of Jefferson’s Monticello, this sweeping narrative reveals how the Enlightenment’s audacious quest for knowledge became entangled with systems of empire and oppression––while offering a bold new reassessment of the era’s most celebrated luminaries.
PRAISE
“Brilliant…a thorough and eminently readable dissection of a pernicious lie.”
“The story of an idea as dangerous as race is one that few are brave enough to tell. In thirteen sparkling biographical cameos, Andrew Curran—sharp-eyed intellectual historian and large-hearted storyteller—takes us on a journey to the dark side of the Enlightenment.”
“Biography of a Dangerous Idea . . . is an invaluable work because, in showing us how race was made, it also demonstrates how this most dangerous idea can be unmade.”
“Andrew Curran, one of the foremost authorities on this subject, offers a necessary and illuminating exploration of eighteenth-century debates on race. . . A clear-eyed book that challenges caricatures on all sides.”
“Andrew Curran goes beyond the world of disembodied ideas, delving into the lives of the flesh-and-blood men whose actions and writings forged modern racial thought [T]his first and much-needed biographical history of race reveals the Enlightenment’s deepest contradictions and enduring legacies.
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“Biography of a Dangerous Idea further cements Andrew S. Curran as one of our greatest scholars of the terrible history of race. A “vitally important, beautifully crafted book.”
“In this immensely informative and highly readable [book], Curran demonstrates that ideas cannot be understood apart from the people who produced them. This is intellectual biography performed at the very highest level.”
“Cleverly crafted and well executed. [The book] is sweeping, it is stunning, and hard to put down.”
“As wonderfully accessible as it is meticulously researched, Andrew Curran’s Biography of a Dangerous Idea. . . is a true gift for readers who seek to understand this complicated story.”