Alchemizing social theory, remarks on Colonialism and Modern Social Theory

Abstract

This review of Bhambra and Holmwood’s Colonialism and Modern Social Theory engages Chapter Six of the text, “Du Bois: Addressing the Colour Line,” as a site to contemplate broader questions about the cost of the pervasive historical erasure of the realities of colonialism and racism from the classical sociological cannon. Beyond historical description, the author thinks with the text to imagine a usable sociology toward the aim of alchemy and repair. Specifically, the author addresses the role “the classics” might play in teaching sociology in this context of such intentional redress.