So yes, I found what might be the book I’ve had the longest without reading, and yes, I started it. It is perfectly fine science (zoology) communication for kids of its time, and it actually does better on some things than I was expecting, but I *know* that the head of the publishing house was a racist individual*, so some of the details that didn’t get removed shouldn’t surprise me. But argh.
And yes, the book is from Australia in 1959, so things that sound like White Australia are almost certainly exactly that.
*In their later years, I was (somewhat) reliably informed that they were a member of the Festival of Light, which was a far right bigots masquerading as Christians organisation.
Oof. I mean, a lot of my favorite books from when I was a kid are from that era and yeah... There are some things in them that are unfortunate all the way around.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 12:08 pm (UTC)So yes, I found what might be the book I’ve had the longest without reading, and yes, I started it. It is perfectly fine science (zoology) communication for kids of its time, and it actually does better on some things than I was expecting, but I *know* that the head of the publishing house was a racist individual*, so some of the details that didn’t get removed shouldn’t surprise me. But argh.
And yes, the book is from Australia in 1959, so things that sound like White Australia are almost certainly exactly that.
*In their later years, I was (somewhat) reliably informed that they were a member of the Festival of Light, which was a far right bigots masquerading as Christians organisation.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 05:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-05 09:48 am (UTC)Most of them were subtle, and then there was one White Man Is A Superior Being line that I was all WTF at.