how to site a book in essay

Works-Cited-List Entries

How to cite a book.

To create a basic works-cited-list entry for a book, list the author, the title, the publisher, and the publication date. You may need to include other elements depending on the type of book you are citing (e.g., an edited book, a translation) and how it is published (e.g., in print, as an e-book, online). Below are sample entries for books along with links to posts containing many other examples.

Book by One Author

Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall . Picador, 2010.

Book by an Unknown Author

Beowulf . Translated by Alan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy, edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson, 2004.

An Edited Book

Sánchez Prado, Ignacio M., editor. Mexican Literature in Theory . Bloomsbury, 2018.

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / MLA Format / How to Cite an Essay in MLA

How to Cite an Essay in MLA

The guidelines for citing an essay in MLA format are similar to those for citing a chapter in a book. Include the author of the essay, the title of the essay, the name of the collection if the essay belongs to one, the editor of the collection or other contributors, the publication information, and the page number(s).

Citing an Essay

Mla essay citation structure.

Last, First M. “Essay Title.” Collection Title, edited by First M. Last, Publisher, year published, page numbers. Website Title , URL (if applicable).

MLA Essay Citation Example

Gupta, Sanjay. “Balancing and Checking.” Essays on Modern Democracy, edited by Bob Towsky, Brook Stone Publishers, 1996, pp. 36-48. Essay Database, www . databaseforessays.org/modern/modern-democracy.

MLA Essay In-text Citation Structure

(Last Name Page #)

MLA Essay In-text Citation Example

Click here to cite an essay via an EasyBib citation form.

MLA Formatting Guide

MLA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Sample Paper
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• MLA 8 Updates
• MLA 9 Updates
• View MLA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all MLA Examples

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To cite your sources in an essay in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the author’s name(s), chapter title, book title, editor(s), publication year, publisher, and page numbers. The templates for in-text citations and a works-cited-list entry for essay sources and some examples are given below:

In-text citation template and example:

For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the author on the first occurrence. For subsequent citations, use only the surname(s). In parenthetical citations, always use only the surname of the author(s).

Citation in prose:

First mention: Annette Wheeler Cafarelli

Subsequent occurrences: Wheeler Cafarelli

Parenthetical:

….(Wheeler Cafarelli).

Works-cited-list entry template and example:

The title of the chapter is enclosed in double quotation marks and uses title case. The book or collection title is given in italics and uses title case.

Surname, First Name. “Title of the Chapter.” Title of the Book , edited by Editor(s) Name, Publisher, Publication Year, page range.

Cafarelli, Annette Wheeler. “Rousseau and British Romanticism: Women and British Romanticism.” Cultural Interactions in the Romantic Age: Critical Essays in Comparative Literature , edited by Gregory Maertz. State U of New York P, 1998, pp. 125–56.

To cite an essay in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the author(s), the essay title, the book title, editor(s), publication year, publisher, and page numbers. The templates for citations in prose, parenthetical citations, and works-cited-list entries for an essay by multiple authors, and some examples, are given below:

For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the author (e.g., Mary Strine).

For sources with two authors, use both full author names in prose (e.g., Mary Strine and Beth Radick).

For sources with three or more authors, use the first name and surname of the first author followed by “and others” or “and colleagues” (e.g., Mary Strine and others). In subsequent citations, use only the surname of the first author followed by “and others” or “and colleagues” (e.g., Strine and others).

In parenthetical citations, use only the author’s surname. For sources with two authors, use two surnames (e.g., Strine and Radick). For sources with three or more author names, use the first author’s surname followed by “et al.”

First mention: Mary Strine…

Subsequent mention: Strine…

First mention: Mary Strine and Beth Radick…

Subsequent mention: Strine and Radick…

First mention: Mary Strine and colleagues …. or Mary Strine and others

Subsequent occurrences: Strine and colleagues …. or Strine and others

…. (Strine).

….(Strine and Radick).

….(Strine et al.).

The title of the essay is enclosed in double quotation marks and uses title case. The book or collection title is given in italics and uses title case.

Surname, First Name, et al. “Title of the Essay.” Title of the Book , edited by Editor(s) Name, Publisher, Publication Year, page range.

Strine, Mary M., et al. “Research in Interpretation and Performance Studies: Trends, Issues, Priorities.” Speech Communication: Essays to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Speech Communication Association , edited by Gerald M. Phillips and Julia T. Wood, Southern Illinois UP, 1990, pp. 181–204.

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Q. How do I refer to a book by title in-text in APA format?

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Answered By: Gabe Gossett Last Updated: Jun 22, 2023     Views: 629962

The basic format for an in-text citation is: Title of the Book (Author Last Name, year).

One author: Where the Wild Things Are (Sendak, 1963) is a depiction of a child coping with his anger towards his mom.

Two authors (cite both names every time): Brabant and Mooney (1986) have used the comic strip to examine evidence of sex role stereotyping. OR The comic strip has been used to examine evidence of sex role stereotyping (Brabant & Mooney, 1986).

Three or more authors (cite the first author plus et al.): Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy (Clare et al., 2016) depicts a young man's experience at the Shadowhunter Academy, a place where being a former vampire is looked down upon.OR Clare et al. (2016) have crafted a unique story about a young man's journey to find himself.

No author: Cite the first few words of the reference entry (usually the title) and the year. Use double quotation marks around the title of an article or chapter, and italicize the title of a periodical, book, brochure, or report. Examples: From the book Study Guide (2000) ... or ("Reading," 1999).

Note: Titles of periodicals, books, brochures, or reports should be in italics and use normal title capitalization rules.

If you are citing multiple sources by multiple authors in-text, you can list all of them by the author's last name and year of publication within the same set of parentheses, separated by semicolons.

Example: (Adams, 1999; Jones & James, 2000; Miller, 1999)

For more information on how to cite books in-text and as a reference entry, see the APA Publication Manual (7th edition) Section 10.2 on pages 321-325 .

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Comments (13)

• This was very useful for me! I was having a really hard time finding information on how to mention an article title AND the author in text in APA so this was very helpful!!! by Ryan Waddell on Jun 27, 2019
• If I just mention that I used a book to teach a topic do I have to include it in the reference list? by Franw on Oct 17, 2019
• @Franw, if it is a source that informs your paper in any way, or if your reader would have reason to look it up, then you should include a full reference list entry for the book. by Gabe [Research & Writing Studio] on Oct 18, 2019
• Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, but I think the OP is asking how to refer to a book title, not how to cite one. I believe APA uses quotation marks around book titles and MLA uses italics. by AB on Dec 12, 2019
• @AB: The first sentence has been tweaked to clarify title of book usage, reflecting the examples given. For APA style you should use italics for book titles. It would be quotation marks. by Gabe [Research & Writing Studio] on Dec 12, 2019
• Hi, can any one help me with in-text-citation of this, how can i cite it in the text Panel, I. L. (2002). Digital transformation: A framework for ICT literacy. Educational Testing Service, 1-53. by Milad on Aug 20, 2021
• @Milad: In that case it would be (Panel, 2002). If you are quoting, or otherwise choosing to include page numbers, put a comma after the year, then p. and the page number(s). by Gabe Gossett on Aug 20, 2021
• Hey, I'm a little bit curious, what if I'm mentioning a book and paraphrasing it but still want to give credit. Would I put the information into parenthesis instead? Like: Paraphrased info. ("Title in Italics" Author, year) by Kai on Sep 14, 2023
• @Kai: Apologies for not seeing your question sooner! (Our academic year has not started yet). If I am understanding your question correctly, what I suggest is referring to the book title in the narrative of your writing, rather than in the in-text citation. I do not see an examples of using a book title in an in-text citation except for rare circumstances including citing a classic religious text or using the title when there is no author information because it is the start of your reference list entry. Basically, APA's in-text convention is supposed to make it easy for your reader to locate the source being cited in the reference list. So the first part of the in-text citation, usually authors, comes first to locate it alphabetically. Putting the book title first when you have an author name can throw that off. by Gabe Gossett on Sep 21, 2023
• Perhaps this is along the lines of the response to Kai - Can you reference a book title as a common point of social understanding to demonstrate a common concept? Is official citing required if you use widely known titles such as "Where's Waldo" and "Who Moved My Cheese?" to make a point of illustration? by Chez Renee on Sep 30, 2023
• @Chez: Aside from some classical religious texts, if it is a published book, I'd try to make sure that it is appropriately cited for APA style. That said, I think I understand where it gets tricky with things like Where's Waldo, since that is a series of books and stating "Where's Waldo" is a cultural reference many people would understand, though you can't reasonably cite the entire series. I don't believe that APA gives guidance for this particular issue. If it is being referred to in order to back up a claim, it would help to cite a particular book. If not, then it might work to use a statement such as, "Hanford's Where's Waldo series . . ." by Gabe Gossett on Oct 02, 2023
• How to cite a dissertation thesis in apa form? by Elizabeth on Feb 05, 2024
• @Elizabeth: For citing a dissertation or thesis you can check out our page answering that here https://askus.library.wwu.edu/faq/153308 by Gabe Gossett on Feb 05, 2024

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• Referencing

A Quick Guide to Referencing | Cite Your Sources Correctly

Referencing means acknowledging the sources you have used in your writing. Including references helps you support your claims and ensures that you avoid plagiarism .

There are many referencing styles, but they usually consist of two things:

• A citation wherever you refer to a source in your text.
• A reference list or bibliography at the end listing full details of all your sources.

The most common method of referencing in UK universities is Harvard style , which uses author-date citations in the text. Our free Harvard Reference Generator automatically creates accurate references in this style.

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Table of contents

Referencing styles, citing your sources with in-text citations, creating your reference list or bibliography, harvard referencing examples, frequently asked questions about referencing.

Each referencing style has different rules for presenting source information. For in-text citations, some use footnotes or endnotes , while others include the author’s surname and date of publication in brackets in the text.

The reference list or bibliography is presented differently in each style, with different rules for things like capitalisation, italics, and quotation marks in references.

Your university will usually tell you which referencing style to use; they may even have their own unique style. Always follow your university’s guidelines, and ask your tutor if you are unsure. The most common styles are summarised below.

Harvard referencing, the most commonly used style at UK universities, uses author–date in-text citations corresponding to an alphabetical bibliography or reference list at the end.

Harvard Referencing Guide

Vancouver referencing, used in biomedicine and other sciences, uses reference numbers in the text corresponding to a numbered reference list at the end.

Vancouver Referencing Guide

APA referencing, used in the social and behavioural sciences, uses author–date in-text citations corresponding to an alphabetical reference list at the end.

APA Referencing Guide APA Reference Generator

MHRA referencing, used in the humanities, uses footnotes in the text with source information, in addition to an alphabetised bibliography at the end.

MHRA Referencing Guide

OSCOLA referencing, used in law, uses footnotes in the text with source information, and an alphabetical bibliography at the end in longer texts.

OSCOLA Referencing Guide

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In-text citations should be used whenever you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source (e.g. a book, article, image, website, or video).

Quoting and paraphrasing

Quoting is when you directly copy some text from a source and enclose it in quotation marks to indicate that it is not your own writing.

Paraphrasing is when you rephrase the original source into your own words. In this case, you don’t use quotation marks, but you still need to include a citation.

In most referencing styles, page numbers are included when you’re quoting or paraphrasing a particular passage. If you are referring to the text as a whole, no page number is needed.

In-text citations

In-text citations are quick references to your sources. In Harvard referencing, you use the author’s surname and the date of publication in brackets.

Up to three authors are included in a Harvard in-text citation. If the source has more than three authors, include the first author followed by ‘ et al. ‘

The point of these citations is to direct your reader to the alphabetised reference list, where you give full information about each source. For example, to find the source cited above, the reader would look under ‘J’ in your reference list to find the title and publication details of the source.

Placement of in-text citations

In-text citations should be placed directly after the quotation or information they refer to, usually before a comma or full stop. If a sentence is supported by multiple sources, you can combine them in one set of brackets, separated by a semicolon.

If you mention the author’s name in the text already, you don’t include it in the citation, and you can place the citation immediately after the name.

• Another researcher warns that the results of this method are ‘inconsistent’ (Singh, 2018, p. 13) .
• Previous research has frequently illustrated the pitfalls of this method (Singh, 2018; Jones, 2016) .
• Singh (2018, p. 13) warns that the results of this method are ‘inconsistent’.

The terms ‘bibliography’ and ‘reference list’ are sometimes used interchangeably. Both refer to a list that contains full information on all the sources cited in your text. Sometimes ‘bibliography’ is used to mean a more extensive list, also containing sources that you consulted but did not cite in the text.

A reference list or bibliography is usually mandatory, since in-text citations typically don’t provide full source information. For styles that already include full source information in footnotes (e.g. OSCOLA and Chicago Style ), the bibliography is optional, although your university may still require you to include one.

Format of the reference list

Reference lists are usually alphabetised by authors’ last names. Each entry in the list appears on a new line, and a hanging indent is applied if an entry extends onto multiple lines.

Different source information is included for different source types. Each style provides detailed guidelines for exactly what information should be included and how it should be presented.

Below are some examples of reference list entries for common source types in Harvard style.

• Chapter of a book
• Journal article

Your university should tell you which referencing style to follow. If you’re unsure, check with a supervisor. Commonly used styles include:

• Harvard referencing , the most commonly used style in UK universities.
• MHRA , used in humanities subjects.
• APA , used in the social sciences.
• Vancouver , used in biomedicine.
• OSCOLA , used in law.

Your university may have its own referencing style guide.

If you are allowed to choose which style to follow, we recommend Harvard referencing, as it is a straightforward and widely used style.

References should be included in your text whenever you use words, ideas, or information from a source. A source can be anything from a book or journal article to a website or YouTube video.

If you don’t acknowledge your sources, you can get in trouble for plagiarism .

To avoid plagiarism , always include a reference when you use words, ideas or information from a source. This shows that you are not trying to pass the work of others off as your own.

You must also properly quote or paraphrase the source. If you’re not sure whether you’ve done this correctly, you can use the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker to find and correct any mistakes.

Harvard referencing uses an author–date system. Sources are cited by the author’s last name and the publication year in brackets. Each Harvard in-text citation corresponds to an entry in the alphabetised reference list at the end of the paper.

Vancouver referencing uses a numerical system. Sources are cited by a number in parentheses or superscript. Each number corresponds to a full reference at the end of the paper.

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Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right)

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There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style. This guide is a quick introduction to the commonly-used Cite Them Right version. You will find further guidance available through the OU Library on the Cite Them Right Database .

For help and support with referencing and the full Cite Them Right guide, have a look at the Library’s page on referencing and plagiarism . If you need guidance referencing OU module material you can check out which sections of Cite Them Right are recommended when referencing physical and online module material .

This guide does not apply to OU Law undergraduate students . If you are studying a module beginning with W1xx, W2xx or W3xx, you should refer to the Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules .

Table of contents

In-text citations and full references.

• Secondary referencing
• Page numbers
• Citing multiple sources published in the same year by the same author

Full reference examples

Referencing consists of two elements:

• in-text citations, which are inserted in the body of your text and are included in the word count. An in-text citation gives the author(s) and publication date of a source you are referring to. If the publication date is not given, the phrase 'no date' is used instead of a date. If using direct quotations or you refer to a specific section in the source you also need the page number/s if available, or paragraph number for web pages.
• full references, which are given in alphabetical order in reference list at the end of your work and are not included in the word count. Full references give full bibliographical information for all the sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

To see a reference list and intext citations check out this example assignment on Cite Them Right .

Difference between reference list and bibliography

a reference list only includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text

a bibliography includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text AND sources that were part of your background reading that you did not use in your assignment

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Examples of in-text citations

You need to include an in-text citation wherever you quote or paraphrase from a source. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author(s), the year of publication, and a page number if relevant. There are a number of ways of incorporating in-text citations into your work - some examples are provided below. Alternatively you can see examples of setting out in-text citations in Cite Them Right .

Note: When referencing a chapter of an edited book, your in-text citation should give the author(s) of the chapter.

Online module materials

(Includes written online module activities, audio-visual material such as online tutorials, recordings or videos).

When referencing material from module websites, the date of publication is the year you started studying the module.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

OR, if there is no named author:

The Open University (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Rietdorf, K. and Bootman, M. (2022) 'Topic 3: Rare diseases'. S290: Investigating human health and disease . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1967195 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

The Open University (2022) ‘3.1 The purposes of childhood and youth research’. EK313: Issues in research with children and young people . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1949633&section=1.3 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

You can also use this template to reference videos and audio that are hosted on your module website:

The Open University (2022) ‘Video 2.7 An example of a Frith-Happé animation’. SK298: Brain, mind and mental health . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2013014&section=4.9.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

The Open University (2022) ‘Audio 2 Interview with Richard Sorabji (Part 2)’. A113: Revolutions . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1960941&section=5.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

Note: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to a module website, or if you have seen an article referred to on the website and then accessed the original version, reference the original journal article, and do not mention the module materials. If only an extract from an article is included in your module materials that you want to reference, you should use secondary referencing, with the module materials as the 'cited in' source, as described above.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of message', Title of discussion board , in Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Fitzpatrick, M. (2022) ‘A215 - presentation of TMAs', Tutor group discussion & Workbook activities , in A215: Creative writing . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=4209566 (Accessed: 24 January 2022).

Note: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, reference as a printed book.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

For ebooks that do not contain print publication details

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title of book . Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Example with one author:

Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project . Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy . Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Accessed: 23 June 2021).

Example with two or three authors:

Goddard, J. and Barrett, S. (2015) The health needs of young people leaving care . Norwich: University of East Anglia, School of Social Work and Psychosocial Studies.

Example with four or more authors:

Young, H.D. et al. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics . San Francisco, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Note: You can choose one or other method to reference four or more authors (unless your School requires you to name all authors in your reference list) and your approach should be consistent.

Note: Books that have an editor, or editors, where each chapter is written by a different author or authors.

Surname of chapter author, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of chapter or section', in Initial. Surname of book editor (ed.) Title of book . Place of publication: publisher, Page reference.

Franklin, A.W. (2012) 'Management of the problem', in S.M. Smith (ed.) The maltreatment of children . Lancaster: MTP, pp. 83–95.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference.

If accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Available at: DOI or URL (if required) (Accessed: date).

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326.

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326. Available at: https://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log... (Accessed: 27 January 2023).

Barke, M. and Mowl, G. (2016) 'Málaga – a failed resort of the early twentieth century?', Journal of Tourism History , 2(3), pp. 187–212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2010.523145

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Mansell, W. and Bloom, A. (2012) ‘£10,000 carrot to tempt physics experts’, The Guardian , 20 June, p. 5.

Roberts, D. and Ackerman, S. (2013) 'US draft resolution allows Obama 90 days for military action against Syria', The Guardian , 4 September. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/04/syria-strikes-draft-resolut... (Accessed: 9 September 2015).

Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Robinson, J. (2007) Social variation across the UK . Available at: https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation... (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

The British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct . Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct (Accessed: 22 March 2019).

Note: Cite Them Right Online offers guidance for referencing webpages that do not include authors' names and dates. However, be extra vigilant about the suitability of such webpages.

Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of photograph . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Kitton, J. (2013) Golden sunset . Available at: https://www.jameskittophotography.co.uk/photo_8692150.html (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

stanitsa_dance (2021) Cossack dance ensemble . Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2023).

Note: If no title can be found then replace it with a short description.

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How to Cite an Essay Within a Book in the APA Format

Writers must correctly acknowledge the sources of borrowed words and ideas when writing research papers in order to avoid charges of plagiarism, which, apart from the ethical concerns, can also have serious consequences ranging from loss of credit on the assignment to expulsion from school. Citing an essay within a book requires proper formatting both within the text of your paper and on the References page.

APA in-text citations, whether they appear in signal phrases or parenthetical citations, typically include the author's last name and the year of publication. As explained in the sixth edition, second printing of the "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association," when you cite an essay within a compilation, you should give the last name of the author of the essay in the citation along with the year the book was published with a comma between. For an article written by Kelly James appearing in a book published in 2011, the citation would appear like this: (James, 2011).

The References page entry begins with the information that appears in the citation, so start with the author of the essay, the last name followed by the first initial with a comma between. After a period, you should place the publication date, in parentheses, ending with a period. The title of the essay appears next followed by a period. Capitalize the first word but no others except proper nouns, and you should not use italics or quotation marks around it. Next write "In" (without the quotation marks) and give the editor, first initial followed by last name. Use "&" (without the quotation marks) between them if you have more than one. Put (Ed.) and a comma to indicate this is an editor, and then give the title of the book, italicized. The page numbers for the essay appear next, in parentheses, after "pp." (without the quotation marks). After a period, the location, a colon and the company appear for print sources. Such an entry might look like this: James, K. (2005). The article's title. In D. Evans & E. Raines (Eds.), The name of the compilation (italicized) (pp. 133-152). New York: Penguin.

Web pages give "Retrieved from" (without the quotation marks) and the URL instead of the publisher details.

Need help with a citation? Try our citation generator .

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition, 2nd printing); American Psychological Association
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Kristie Sweet has been writing professionally since 1982, most recently publishing for various websites on topics like health and wellness, and education. She holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of Northern Colorado.

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She Wrote ‘The History of White People.’ She Has a Lot More to Say.

“I Just Keep Talking,” a collection of essays and artwork by the historian Nell Irvin Painter, captures her wide-ranging interests and original mind.

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I JUST KEEP TALKING: A Life in Essays , by Nell Irvin Painter

As the historian Nell Irvin Painter has learned over the course of her eight decades on this earth, inspiration can come from some unlikely places.

In 2000, she happened across a news photograph of Grozny, the capital city of Chechnya, which had been bombed into rubble during the long stretch of devastating wars between Russia and the Caucasus. The photo prompted Painter to wonder how “Caucasian” became a term for white people; that in turn led her to an 18th-century German naturalist who picked out five skulls to embody the five “varieties” of mankind. What he deemed “the really most beautiful form of skull” belonged to a young Georgian woman and would therefore represent Caucasians, whom he called “the most beautiful and best formed of men.”

From a photograph of bombed-out Grozny to the absurd methodology of a German naturalist: Painter’s research for the best-selling “The History of White People” (2010) was born.

“It was as though I lost my head, you boiled off all the flesh and the brains and eyeballs out of it, and you called it ‘New Jersey Variety of Mankind,’” she writes about the Georgian’s skull in “I Just Keep Talking,” a collection of her essays and artwork that includes a number of such characteristically irreverent asides. Painter was a historian at Princeton before enrolling in art school at the age of 64. In 2018, she recalled the experience in a freewheeling memoir . “I Just Keep Talking” presents Painter in full, gathering personal reflections, scholarly essays and images spanning several decades to convey the range of her interests and ambition.

“So much in me,” Painter writes, “was suited for disregard.” She recalls a happy upbringing in Oakland by parents who “were never poor, though never rich.” The family would drive around California in their Kaiser automobile, with Nell and her dog, Christopher Robin, stretched out on the back seat. She can see her class privilege for what it was, but it also made her feel as if she wasn’t easily apprehensible by others: “There’s not much there in my life to match what my country likes to recognize as a Black narrative of hurt.”

Painter went on to study that hurt in depth, writing about slavery’s persistent legacy of violence. But she has also emphasized the historical importance of Black resourcefulness and creativity. One of her books traced the Exoduster migration of formerly enslaved people to Kansas in 1879; another told the life story of the antislavery activist Sojourner Truth . Born enslaved, the charismatic Truth knew she had to be canny when it came to her self-presentation. One photograph she circulated included her statement: “I sell the shadow to support the substance.”

This discrepancy between one’s sense of self and how that self is received and remembered has long fascinated Painter. One essay in “I Just Keep Talking” explains why the line most associated with Truth — “Ar’n’t I a woman?” — is something that Truth almost certainly did not say; it was more probably the fabrication of a white antislavery writer, who added the phrase in her account in order to portray Truth as a “colorful force of nature” and amp up the drama. Painter doesn’t deny that the theatricality was effective, dovetailing with Truth’s own deployment of a “naïve persona,” but it also flattened her into a caricature, obscuring the quiddity of the woman she actually was.

“My academic research as a Black woman frequently loses out to a slogan that my sister citizens want Truth to have said, and to the national hunger for simplifying history,” Painter writes. Elsewhere, she explores how the 19th-century abolitionist and pan-Africanist Martin R. Delany was claimed by Black nationalists in the 1960s who ignored his adamant elitism. Delany favored the immigration of Black Americans to Liberia, where they would “assist to elevate” the local population, which he described as “degraded brethren.” As Painter points out, this was the attitude of someone who embraced “the settler ideal.” Delany “could not conceive of policies that would benefit one group of Blacks but not others.”

The essays in “I Just Keep Talking” show her repeatedly drawing attention to a plurality of Black American experiences. An incisive 1989 review of the historian Eric Foner’s “ Reconstruction ” criticizes him for paying insufficient attention to “women as autonomous actors” whose preferences did not always correspond to the demands of “their husbands or the market economy.” A 1992 essay on the Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill, who accused him of sexual harassment in congressional hearings before his appointment, is scathing on Thomas’s disparagement of his own sister, whom he publicly derided as lazy and “dependent” on welfare.

“He seemed not to have appreciated that he was the favored boy-child, protected and sent to private schools, and that she was the girl who stayed behind, married early and cared for an ailing relative,” Painter writes, going on to parse how Thomas “appropriated the figure of the lynch victim.” Hill, by contrast, was a “highly educated, ambitious Black female Republican” who “had no comparable tradition of a stereotype that had been recognized, analyzed and subverted to draw upon,” Painter says. “As a result, she seemed to disappear.”

The notion of disappearance is a preoccupation for Painter, who has spent enough time combing through the archives to see how easily entire lives get consigned to oblivion. She is candid about her frustrations with “stupid” reviews of her books and prize committees that she feels have “totally overlooked” her historical work. But seeking validation from elite institutions is too often a mug’s game. Painter says that her practice as an artist allows her to explore a world that isn’t tethered to “archival truth” or “clear meaning.” During Donald Trump’s presidency, her drawings and collages seemed to become looser and freer, gesturing at tragedy but also inflected by her sly sense of humor.

“I Just Keep Talking” is full of surprises, and it ends with something I haven’t seen in a while: gratitude for social media. Facebook and Instagram felt like an “abundance” to her, especially during the isolation of the pandemic. “I no longer feel as though I’m talking to just myself,” Painter writes. “Social media brought me lots of people to talk to who talked back.”

I JUST KEEP TALKING : A Life in Essays | By Nell Irvin Painter | Doubleday | 418 pp. | $35

An earlier version of this article misstated the century in which the abolitionist and pan-Africanist Martin R. Delany lived. He lived in the 19th century, not the 18th.

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Jennifer Szalai is the nonfiction book critic for The Times. More about Jennifer Szalai

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Are White Women Better Now?

What anti-racism workshops taught us

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W e had to correct her, and we knew how to do it by now. We would not sit quietly in our white-bodied privilege, nor would our corrections be given apologetically or packaged with niceties. There I was, one of about 30 people attending a four-day-long Zoom seminar called “The Toxic Trends of Whiteness,” hosted by the group Education for Racial Equity.

An older white woman whom I’ll call Stacy had confessed to the group that she was ashamed of being white, and that she hoped in her next life she wouldn’t be white anymore. This provided us with a major learning moment. One participant began by amping herself up, intoning the concepts we’d been taught over the past two days: “Grounding, rooting, removing Bubble Wrap.” Then she got into it. “What I heard you say about wanting to come back as a dark-skinned person in your next life was racist, because as white people we don’t have the luxury of trying on aspects of people of color.”

“Notice how challenging that was,” our facilitator, Carlin Quinn, said. “That’s what getting your reps in looks like.”

Another woman went next, explaining that Stacy seemed to see people of color as better or more desirable, that her statement was “an othering.” Quinn prompted her to sum it up in one sentence: “When you said that you wish you would come back in your next life as a dark-skinned person, I experienced that as racist because …”

“That was racist because it exoticized Black people.”

“Great,” Quinn said. She pushed for more from everyone, and more came. Stacy’s statement was romanticizing . It was extractive . It was erasing . Stacy sat very still. Eventually we finished. Stacy thanked everyone, her voice thin.

The seminar would culminate with a talk from Robin DiAngelo, the most prominent anti-racist educator working in America. I had signed up because I was curious about her teachings, which had suddenly become so popular. DiAngelo’s 2018 book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism , had been a best seller for years by the time I joined the toxic whiteness group in May 2021. But during the heat of the Black Lives Matter protests, her influence boomed. She was brought in to advise Democratic members of the House of Representatives. Coca-Cola, Disney, and Lockheed Martin sent their employees through DiAngelo-inspired diversity trainings; even the defense company Raytheon launched an anti-racism DEI program.

In the DiAngelo doctrine, the issue was not individual racists doing singular bad acts. All white people are racist, because racism is structural. To fix one’s inherent racism requires constant work, and it requires white people to talk about their whiteness. Seminars like hers exploded as anti-racism was shifted from a project of changing laws and fighting systems into a more psychological movement: something you did within yourself. It was therapeutic. It wasn’t about elevating others so much as about deconstructing yourself in hopes of eventually deconstructing the systems around you.

Read: Abolish DEI statements

Anti-racism courses are less popular today. This may in part be because more people have become willing to question the efficacy of corporate DEI programs, but it’s surely also because their lessons now show up everywhere. In March at UCLA Medical School, during a required course, a guest speaker had the first-year medical students kneel and pray to “Mama Earth” before saying that medicine was “white science,” as first reported by The Washington Free Beacon . The course I took was just a preview of what’s come to be expected in workplaces and schools all over the country.

DiAngelo and her fellow thinkers are right in many ways. The economic fallout of structural racism persists in this country—fallout from rules, for example, about where Black people could buy property, laws that for generations have influenced who is rich and who is poor. The laws may be gone, but plenty of racists are left. And the modern anti-racist movement is right that we all probably do have some racism and xenophobia in us. The battle of modernity and liberalism is fighting against our tribal natures and animal selves.

I went into the workshop skeptical that contemporary anti-racist ideology was helpful in that fight. I left exhausted and emotional and, honestly, moved. I left as the teachers would want me to leave: thinking a lot about race and my whiteness, the weight of my skin. But telling white people to think about how deeply white they are, telling them that their sense of objectivity and individualism are white, that they need to stop trying to change the world and focus more on changing themselves … well, I’m not sure that has the psychological impact the teachers are hoping it will, let alone that it will lead to any tangible improvement in the lives of people who aren’t white.

M uch of what I learned in “The Toxic Trends of Whiteness” concerned language. We are “white bodies,” Quinn explained, but everyone else is a “body of culture.” This is because white bodies don’t know a lot about themselves, whereas “bodies of culture know their history. Black bodies know.”

The course began with easy questions (names, what we do, what we love), and an icebreaker: What are you struggling with or grappling with related to your whiteness? We were told that our answers should be “as close to the bone as possible, as naked, as emotionally revealing.” We needed to feel uncomfortable.

One woman loved gardening. Another loved the sea. People said they felt exhausted by constantly trying to fight their white supremacy. A woman with a biracial child said she was scared that her whiteness could harm her child. Some expressed frustration. It was hard, one participant said, that after fighting the patriarchy for so long, white women were now “sort of being told to step aside.” She wanted to know how to do that without feeling resentment. The woman who loved gardening was afraid of “being a middle-aged white woman and being called a Karen.”

A woman who worked in nonprofits admitted that she was struggling to overcome her own skepticism. Quinn picked up on that: How did that skepticism show up? “Wanting to say, ‘Prove it.’ Are we sure that racism is the explanation for everything?”

John McWhorter: The dehumanizing condescension of White Fragility

She was nervous, and that was good, Quinn said: “It’s really an important gauge, an edginess of honesty and vulnerability—like where it kind of makes you want to throw up.”

One participant was a diversity, equity, and inclusion manager at a consulting firm, and she was struggling with how to help people of color while not taking up space as a white person. It was hard to center and decenter whiteness at the same time.

A woman from San Francisco had started crying before she even began speaking. “I’m here because I’m a racist. I’m here because my body has a trauma response to my own whiteness and other people’s whiteness.” A woman who loved her cats was struggling with “how to understand all the atrocities of being a white body.” Knowing that her very existence perpetuated whiteness made her feel like a drag on society. “The darkest place I go is thinking it would be better if I weren’t here. It would at least be one less person perpetuating these things.”

T he next day we heard from DiAngelo herself. Quinn introduced her as “transformative for white-bodied people across the world.” DiAngelo is quite pretty, and wore a mock turtleneck and black rectangular glasses. She started by telling us that she would use the term people of color , but also that some people of color found the term upsetting. She would therefore vary the terms she used, rotating through imperfect language. Sometimes people of color , other times racialized , to indicate that race is not innate and rather is something that has been done to someone. Sometimes she would use the acronym BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color), but she would then make a conscious grammatical mistake: “If I say ‘BIPOC,’ I find that’s a kind of harsh acronym. I usually add people at the end to humanize it a bit, even though grammatically that’s not correct,” she said.

Language is a tricky thing for the movement. The idea is that you should be open and raw when you speak, but you can get so much wrong. It’s no wonder that even Robin DiAngelo herself is worried. (At one point she recommended a book by Reni Eddo-Lodge—“a Black Brit,” DiAngelo said. For a moment she looked scared. “I hope that’s not an offensive term.” Quinn chimed in to say she thought it was okay, but DiAngelo looked introspective. “It sounds harsh. The Brit part sounded harsh.”)

DiAngelo wanted to remind us that she is white. She emphasized the wh —, giving the word a lushness and intensity. “I’m very clear today that I am wh ite, that I have a wh ite worldview. I have a wh ite frame of reference. I move through the world with a wh ite experience.”

She introduced some challenges. First was white people’s “lack of humility”: “If you are white and you have not devoted years, years—not that you read some books last summer—to sustained study, struggle, and work and practice and mistake making and relationship building, your opinions while you have them are necessarily uninformed and superficial.”

“Challenge No. 2 is the precious ideology of individualism, the idea that every one of us is unique and special.”

She prepared us for what would come next: “I will be generalizing about white people.” She was sharing her screen and showed us an image of middle-aged white women: “This is the classic board of a nonprofit.” She threw up a picture of high-school students in a local paper with the headline “Outstanding Freshmen Join Innovative Teacher-Education Program.” Almost all the teenagers were white. “This education program was not and could not have been innovative. Our educational system is probably one of the most efficient, effective mechanisms for the reproduction of racial inequality.” Lingering on the picture, she asked, “Do you feel the weight of that whiteness?”

From the September 2021 issue: Robin DiAngelo and the problem with anti-racist self-help

Another image. It was a white man. “I don’t know who that is,” she said. “I just Googled white guy , but most white people live segregated lives.”

When someone calls a white person out as racist, she told us, the white person will typically deny it. “Denying, arguing, withdrawing, crying. ‘I don’t understand.’ Seeking forgiveness. ‘I feel so bad, I feel so bad. Tell me you still love me.’” She paused. “Emotions are political. We need to build our stamina to endure some shame, some guilt,” she said. Quinn broke in to say that intentions are the province of the privileged. But consequences are the province of the subjugated.

Someone who has integrated an anti-racist perspective, DiAngelo told us, should be able to say: “I hold awareness of my whiteness in all settings, and it guides how I engage. I raise issues about racism over and over, both in public and in private … You want to go watch a movie with me? You’re going to get my analysis of how racism played in that movie. I have personal relationships and know the private lives of a range of people of color, including Black people. And there are also people of color in my life who I specifically ask to coach me, and I pay them for their time.”

I was surprised by this idea that I should pay Black friends and acquaintances by the hour to tutor me—it sounded a little offensive. But then I considered that if someone wanted me to come to their house and talk with them about their latent feelings of homophobia, I wouldn’t mind being Venmoed afterward.

When DiAngelo was done, Quinn asked if we had questions. Very few people did, and that was disappointing—the fact that white bodies had nothing to say about a profound presentation. Silence and self-consciousness were part of the problem. “People’s lives are on the line. This is life or death for bodies of culture.” We needed to work on handling criticism. If it made you shake, that was good.

One of the few men in the group said he felt uncomfortable being told to identify as a racist. Here he’d just been talking with all of his friends about not being racist. Now he was going to “say that I might have been wrong here.” He noticed he felt “resistance to saying ‘I’m racist.’”

Quinn understood; that was normal. He just needed to try again, say “I am a racist” and believe it. The man said: “I am racist.” What did he feel? He said he was trying not to fight it. Say it again. “I am racist.”

“Do you feel sadness or grief?”

“Sadness and grief feel true,” he said.

“That’s beautiful,” Quinn said.

Some members of the group were having a breakthrough. Stacy said she was “seeing them finally … Like, wow, are there moments when this white body chooses to see a body of culture when it isn’t dangerous for them?” One woman realized she was “a walking, talking node of white supremacy.” Another finally saw how vast whiteness was: “So vast and so, so big.”

F or a while , a dinner series called Race to Dinner for white women to talk about their racism was very popular, though now it seems a little try-hard. The hosts—Saira Rao and Regina Jackson—encourage women who have paid up to $625 a head to abandon any notion that they are not racist. At one point Rao, who is Indian American, and Jackson, who is Black, publicized the dinners with a simple message: “Dear white women: You cause immeasurable pain and damage to Black, Indigenous and brown women. We are here to sit down with you to candidly discuss how *exactly* you cause this pain and damage.”

One could also attend a workshop called “What’s Up With White Women? Unpacking Sexism and White Privilege Over Lunch,” hosted by the authors of What’s Up With White Women? Unpacking Sexism and White Privilege in Pursuit of Racial Justice (the authors are two white women). Or you could go to “Finding Freedom: White Women Taking On Our Own White Supremacy,” hosted by We Are Finding Freedom (a for-profit run by two white women). The National Association of Social Workers’ New York City chapter advertised a workshop called “Building White Women’s Capacity to Do Anti-racism Work” (hosted by the founder of U Power Change, who is a white woman).

So many of the workshops have been run by and aimed at white women. White women specifically seem very interested in these courses, perhaps because self-flagellation is seen as a classic female virtue. The hated archetype of the anti-racist movement is the Karen . No real equivalent exists for men. Maybe the heavily armed prepper comes close, but he’s not quite the same, in that a Karen is someone you’ll run into in a coffee shop, and a Karen is also someone who is disgusted with herself. Where another generation of white women worked to hate their bodies, my generation hates its “whiteness” (and I don’t mean skin color, necessarily, as this can also be your internalized whiteness). People are always demanding that women apologize for something and women seem to love doing it. Women will pay for the opportunity. We’ll thank you for it.

Tyler Austin Harper: I’m a black professor. You don’t need to bring that up.

After DiAngelo, I went to another course, “Foundations in Somatic Abolitionism.” That one was more about what my white flesh itself means and how to physically manifest anti-racism—“embodying anti-racism.” Those sessions were co-led by Resmaa Menakem, a therapist and the author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies .

Menakem stressed how important it was not to do his exercises with people of color, because it would wound them: “Do not have bodies of culture in a group of white bodies. White bodies with white bodies and bodies of culture with bodies of culture.”

The harm caused by processing your whiteness with a person of color had also been stressed in the previous course—the book DiAngelo had recommended by Reni Eddo-Lodge was called Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race . But at the same time, Quinn had said that we should talk with people of different races about our journey and let them guide us. It all seemed a bit contradictory.

One participant had a question for Menakem about community building. She was concerned because she had a mixed-race group of friends, and she wanted to be sure she wasn’t harming her Black friends by talking about this work.

“There’s no way you’re going to be able to keep Black women safe,” Menakem said. “If you’re talking about race, if race is part of the discussion, those Black women are going to get injured in the process.”

“That’s my worry,” she said. The problem was that she and her friends were actually already in “like, an anti-racism study group.” Menakem was definitive: “Don’t do that,” he said. “I don’t want white folks gazing at that process.”

A few years have passed since I was in these workshops, and I wonder if the other participants are “better” white people now. What would that even mean, exactly? Getting outside their ethnic tribe—or the opposite?

At one point Menakem intoned, “All white bodies cause racialized stress and wounding to bodies of culture. Everybody say it. ‘All white bodies cause racialized stress and wounding to bodies of culture.’” We said it, over and over again. I collapsed into it, thinking: I am careless; I am selfish; I do cause harm. The more we said it, the more it started to feel like a release. It felt so sad. But it also—and this seemed like a problem—felt good.

What if fighting for justice could just be a years-long confessional process and didn’t require doing anything tangible at all? What if I could defeat white supremacy from my lovely living room, over tea, with other white people? Personally I don’t think that’s how it works. I’m not sold. But maybe my whiteness has blinded me. The course wrapped up, and Menakem invited us all to an upcoming two-day workshop.

This essay is adapted from the forthcoming book, Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History.

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The Old Man and the Sea Full Book Summary

This essay about Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea,” explores its enduring significance and themes of resilience, dignity, and personal conquest. It delves into the narrative’s key moments, such as Santiago’s epic battle with a marlin, his reflections on life, and his triumphant return home. Through Hemingway’s terse prose, the novella vividly portrays the interplay between man and nature and the profound insights gained from adversity. The essay highlights how “The Old Man and the Sea” transcends a simple fisherman’s tale to become a profound exploration of human fortitude and the essence of existence.

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Ernest Hemingway’s masterpiece, “The Old Man and the Sea,” endures as a quintessential gem in American literary annals, capturing the monumental clash between a weathered, elderly fisherman and a formidable marlin. Hemingway’s succinct yet potent novella garners acclaim not solely for its straightforward narration but also for its profound allegorical layers and themes of resilience, dignity, and personal conquest. This treatise offers an intricate summation of the tome, delving into its pivotal junctures and the profound doctrines encapsulated in Hemingway’s characteristic terse prose.

The narrative orbits around Santiago, an aged Cuban fisherman who has endured eighty-four days of fruitless fishing, deemed “salao,” the epitome of ill fortune in angling folklore. His youthful apprentice, Manolin, has been prohibited by his progenitors from accompanying the old man due to this streak of misfortune and has been directed to join a more prosperous vessel. Nevertheless, Manolin retains a profound affection for Santiago, assisting him in ferrying his paraphernalia to his vessel each dawn and engaging in discourse about American baseball—particularly their idol, Joe DiMaggio.

On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago embarks solo, venturing deeper into the Gulf Stream than customary, buoyed by hopes of breaking his streak of misfortune. Here, he ensnares a colossal marlin, acknowledging it as his most formidable adversary and comrade. The marlin proves indomitable and resolute, dragging Santiago’s skiff for two days. Amidst this trial, Santiago harbors a profound admiration for the marlin’s vigor and nobility, deeming it a worthy adversary. He reflects on his past, his ardor for baseball, his youth, and the lions he once beheld on the African shores in his reveries.

As Santiago grapples with the marlin, he contends not solely with the fish but also with his weariness and physical limitations. The marlin, too, engages in a valiant struggle, epitomizing the reverence for nature central to the novella’s themes. Hemingway vividly delineates the interplay between man and nature, the reverence for adversaries, and the personal epiphanies derived from adversity. On the third day, Santiago ultimately draws the marlin close enough to harpoon it, securing his triumph. However, this victory exacts a steep toll. He latches the marlin to the flank of his skiff, yet en route to shore, sharks are lured by the marlin’s blood. Despite Santiago’s endeavors to repel them and his slaying of several sharks, they devour the marlin, leaving naught but its skeletal frame.

The homecoming to his hamlet is lugubrious. Santiago returns fatigued and despondent, towing the remnants of the marlin behind him. He retreats to his hovel to slumber, dreaming of his youth and the lions on the African beach, emblematic of his enduring vitality and fortitude. Meanwhile, the other fishermen, having beheld the impressive skeleton of the marlin, garner a newfound reverence for Santiago. Manolin, tearful and apprehensive upon discovering the old man unharmed, pledges to fish with him anew. They chart a course to fish together, perpetuating the cycle of mentorship and camaraderie.

“The Old Man and the Sea” transcends the mere chronicle of a fisherman and a fish. It constitutes a profound expedition into human fortitude, the battles we wage in the seclusion of our existence, and the dignity inherent in striving fervently despite often insurmountable odds. Hemingway’s austere prose and stratified metaphors weave a narrative that delves as deeply into the internal human condition as it does into external struggles. The novella, bestowed the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and hailed as a pivotal factor in Hemingway’s Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, endures as a testament to Hemingway’s acumen and his philosophical inquiry into life’s essence through literature. It beckons readers to contemplate their trials, the essence of their adversities, and the homage owed to all beings in the theater of existence.

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Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration: They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

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Reading Wittgenstein with Anscombe, Going On to Ethics , by Cora Diamond

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Michael Kremer, Reading Wittgenstein with Anscombe, Going On to Ethics , by Cora Diamond, Mind , Volume 133, Issue 529, January 2024, Pages 312–321, https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzab100

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In 1991, Cora Diamond published The Realistic Spirit , a collection of essays that has since become a classic. This long-awaited new book, like the first, combines work in the history of analytic philosophy and in moral philosophy. And it is similar in continuing to philosophize in what Diamond calls the ‘realistic spirit’. As she explained in the ‘central’ essay in her earlier collection, ‘Realism and the Realistic Spirit’, this spirit in philosophy encourages us to not avoid details, but ‘look at them from close to’ ( Philosophical Investigations §§51–52, quoted in Diamond 1991 , p. 46, and referenced in Diamond 2019 , p. 76). In this spirit we attend to our use of language and our patterns of thought, in their contexts, and with their histories, and avoid temptations to generalization and to a priori claims about how things must be. I will try to make evident how continuous this mode of philosophizing is in Diamond’s new book.

This book, however, unlike The Realistic Spirit , is not at all a collection of Diamond’s greatest hits in the history of analytic philosophy, or ethics, or any other area – such a book would contain many pieces not collected here. This book, instead, traces out a particular trajectory of thought, determined by repeated critical engagement with the writings of Elizabeth Anscombe. The result is a fascinating intellectual journey that repays careful reading.

Reading Wittgenstein comprises three sections, corresponding to three phases of the journey. Each section contains two or three previously published (or previously delivered) essays, along with a substantial introductory essay. The trip begins with Diamond’s reading of Anscombe’s 1959 Introduction to Wittgenstein’s Tractatus , the book from which she first learned to read Wittgenstein ( Diamond 2019 , p. 1), which she calls an ‘enormously stimulating’ book ‘from which one continues to learn’ ( Diamond 2019 , p. 45, emphasis in original). She then passes to her encounter with Anscombe’s later writings on Wittgenstein and the new questions to which they led her. Finally, she examines a debate between Bernard Williams and David Wiggins on the possibility of truth and objectivity in ethics, in the light of the lessons of her reading, and critique, of Anscombe on Wittgenstein.

A central theme of the book figures as both a thought about the Tractatus , and a thought about philosophy. Concerning the Tractatus , the thought is this: we should not read that book as laying out a theory of the ‘limits of thought’ which settles, on general principles, that some proposition transgresses these limits and thus fails to make sense. Rather, Wittgenstein offers a guide to an activity of clarification of thought. This activity can lead us to reject a proposition as nonsensical, but not on the basis of a general principle which rules out entire classes of propositions. Rather, we judge a proposition to be nonsensical because it contains words with no meaning, no function in the language – perhaps because the user of the words, in a particular context, is involved in an equivocation, wavering between different uses (and so is using words without a determinate use). Such judgments must be based on careful consideration of the details of the uses of language in question. This clarificatory activity helps us to avoid confusions of thought which lead to seemingly inextricable puzzlement. And this is the thought about philosophy, as Diamond practices it: rather than the construction of theories to explain some interesting phenomenon, it is an activity of clarification that aims to keep our thoughts in order and to avoid various forms of confusion.

This distinction underlies Diamond’s most fundamental criticism of Anscombe’s reading of the Tractatus . Diamond praises Anscombe for the way in which she brings the questions and puzzlement that move Wittgenstein to life ( Diamond 2019 , p. 52). Anscombe conveys her most important insight – that the so-called ‘picture theory’ of language is not half of a two-part structure, with the other half the theory of truth-functions, but one account of propositions as pictures – by bringing into focus crucial questions about the simplest truth-operation, negation , and showing how these questions are resolved by ‘laying out the use’ of propositions as pictures. Thus Anscombe asks: why should we think that for each proposition, p , there is a second proposition, ∼ p , opposed to it – and that there is exactly one ( Diamond 2019 , p. 46)? Reflection on the analogy of propositions with pictures provides the answer: any picture that can be used to say how things are can also be used to say how they are not – through reversal of sense. What Diamond calls ‘picture-propositions’ ( Diamond 2019 , p. 8, passim ) already bring with them truth-functional dependence – there are not two conceptions of proposition, or of truth, in the Tractatus , but only one. Anscombe herself illustrates the activity of clarification that is philosophy, for Diamond, in this argument.

But Diamond faults Anscombe for taking Wittgenstein to offer a theory of sense that can be used to determine whether someone has made sense or uttered nonsense. P.M.S. Hacker’s ‘Introduction’ to the recent ‘Centenary Edition’ of the Tractatus provides a clear example of such exclusionary readings of the Tractatus . Hacker writes that proposition 7 of the Tractatus , ‘What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence’, ‘follows proposition 6, which specifies the general form of a truth-function, and asserts that this is the general propositional form’, and therefore ‘declares that anything that cannot be said by means of a result of truth-functional operations on elementary propositions cannot be spoken of … for it will not satisfy the necessary formal requirements of being a proposition with a sense’ ( Hacker 2021 , p. 19). Anything that is neither a sense-laden ‘picture-proposition’ nor a ‘senseless’ tautology or contradiction is therefore nonsense. Anscombe’s reading is similarly exclusionary, although she makes an exception for mathematical equations. But she views this as a fatal flaw in the Tractatus , since many things that she thinks are perfectly meaningful, obviously true, and philosophically illuminating, would be excluded as nonsense.

(A) ‘“Someone” is not the name of someone’.

(A), according to Anscombe, is true, and illuminating, but what it sets out to deny expresses only confusion, and when thought through, ‘peters out into nothingness’ (quoted in Diamond 2019 , p. 73). But, on Anscombe’s reading of the Tractatus , (A), lacking an intelligible denial, is nonsensical.

Diamond devotes an essay to this example, and returns to it frequently. While she thinks it is not as clear as Anscombe supposes, she is more interested in the type of proposition that it represents, and in the claim that the Tractatus – or an approach to philosophical clarification modelled on the Tractatus – must exclude such propositions as nonsense. Diamond resists this as a misreading of the Tractatus , and the themes that emerge enrich her account of her own practice of philosophical clarification. Her early Wittgenstein offers a guide to such a practice, in which we endeavour to make clear what we are saying in philosophy, and to eliminate confusions in our and others’ philosophizing, through a case-by-case examination, laying out the use that we make of language , and enabling us to see when thinking is going well and when it is going astray. We cannot rely on general principles of a theory of meaningfulness; rather in every case we proceed in a realistic spirit, looking at the details from close to.

For example, consider Diamond’s careful treatment of (A). She first points out, as Anscombe admits, that (A) is not meant to rule out a parent’s naming their child ‘Someone’. Such a use of the word is possible ( Diamond 2019 , p. 73). But, in the terms of Tractatus 3.3-3.328, this ‘Someone’ would not be the same symbol as in (A); it would only be the same sign . The two uses of ‘Someone’ share only the same sensibly perceptible aspect. Similarly, (A) does not concern the use of ‘Someone’ in ‘She thinks she’s someone’ ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 92-3). So (A) needs to be clarified by specifying what symbol we are talking about. However, this threatens to reduce (A) to the status of a mere tautology (‘“Someone”, when not used as a name, is not the name of someone’) ( Diamond 2019 , p. 74). We can do more by laying out the relevant use of ‘Someone’ in inference , and contrasting this with the use of a name like ‘Cora’– from ‘Cora is hungry and Cora is thirsty’ we can infer ‘Cora is hungry and thirsty’, but from ‘Someone is hungry and someone is thirsty’ we cannot infer ‘Someone is hungry and thirsty’ ( Diamond 2019 , p. 77). But if we clarify the differing uses of ‘Someone’ and ‘Cora’ in this and similar ways, the label ‘name’ may cease to do any work; we may no longer need the claim ‘“Someone” is not the name of someone’.

However, Diamond makes room for a use for language which appears to be superfluous in this sense ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 80ff.). Anscombe, like Diamond, uses contrasting inferential behaviour to clarify the difference between ‘someone’ and a name like ‘Cora’. But the validity and invalidity of inferences can be exhibited in tautologies. The validity of the inference p ∨ q , ∼ p ∴ q is exhibited in the tautology (( p ∨ q ) & ∼ p ) ⊃ q , and the in validity of p ∨ q, p ∴ ∼ q is exhibited in the tautology ∼[(( p ∨ q ) & p ) ⊃ ∼ q ] ≡ ( p & q ), which displays a way for the premises to be true and the conclusion false. According to the Tractatus , tautologies are superfluous in the sense that for any proposition P and tautology T , P and P & T are the same proposition, say the same thing. Yet it may prove useful to express a proposition by adding a tautological conjunct that displays a feature of the use of the proposition in inference and can ward off confusion. Writing p ∨ q as ( p ∨ q ) & {∼[(( p ∨ q ) & p ) ⊃ ∼ q ] ≡ ( p & q )} & [(( p ∨ q ) & ∼ p ) ⊃ q ] might prevent a confusion between inclusive and exclusive disjunction and keep our inferential steps on the right path, without saying more than p ∨ q . Which clarificatory tautology one employs would depend on which dangers of confusion need to be avoided, and which pathways of thinking need to be highlighted – and this will depend on whom one is trying to help to think clearly, and how.

This account of a clarificatory use of tautologies provides a model for the function of a number of proposition-types that exclusionary readings of the Tractatus rule out as nonsensical. Drawing on some of my own work, Diamond suggests that the equations of mathematics discussed in the 6.2s of the Tractatus can function as guides to inference and reminders of calculations used in earlier inferences – picking up on Wittgenstein’s remark at Tractatus 6.211 that we use a senseless arithmetical equation to draw inferences from one senseful picture-proposition to another ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 134–5, 164, 174–5, 206). Similarly, she draws from the work of James Griffin and Chon Tejedor in explaining the role of scientific propositions, discussed in the 6.3s, in supplying ‘representational techniques’ for use in depicting the world ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 164, 174, 176). Propositions that Anscombe and Hacker see as excluded, since they are not picture-propositions, turn out to be meaningful by having a function in the language – a function in guiding the path of our thinking. Diamond dubs such propositions ‘path-indicators’. Further, following Roger White, she suggests that other arithmetical propositions – inequalities like ‘8 × 12 ≠ 106’ – can function as ‘path-blockers’, reminders of ways not to proceed in thought ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 164, 206-8, 257-260). Such path-guiding propositions are meaningful, according to the Tractatus ’s version of Ockham’s razor: signs without any function are meaningless, while signs with the same function have the same meaning ( Tractatus 3.328, 5.47321).

Thus, Diamond rejects exclusionary readings of the Tractatus based on a purported theory laid out in that book. On her reading, Wittgenstein lays out one use of language, the use in ‘picture-propositions’, and thereby clarifies propositions that conform to this use. But this excludes nothing ; to show that someone has failed to speak meaningfully we must show that their words have no function, do no work, and this is a task of clarification that proceeds case by case. Diamond takes Anscombe to exemplify this kind of clarification at the end of her Introduction . She relays Wittgenstein’s response to her remark that people thought the sun went around the earth because it looks as if it does: ‘what would it have looked like if it had looked as if the earth turned on its axis?’ Anscombe took this reply to reveal that she had given no clear meaning to her use of ‘looks’ – but not through the application of some theory. She concluded that the Tractatus does not allow of a ‘simple general form’ in which to cast criticism of a proposition as nonsense. But, Diamond remarks, this point sits poorly with her earlier exclusionary reading of that work ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 39, 56).

Nonetheless, Diamond returns to Anscombe’s thought that remarks like (A) ‘can only be true’, because their opposites ‘peter out into nothingness’, to illuminate the status of her ‘path-indicators’ and ‘path-blockers’. She asks in what sense such remarks can be true , even though their truth is not internally related to the possibility of reversal of sense. She turns for help to Anscombe’s work on Aristotle’s account of ‘practical truth’. Anscombe picks up on a passage where Aristotle says that truth is the aim of all thinking, so that thinking done well can be credited with truth – even practical thinking ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 162-3, 262, 303). If certain propositions function to guide our thinking, Diamond suggests, we might be able to call such propositions, and thinking involving them, ‘true’ – if the guides are good ones.

Anscombe’s account of practical truth has a dimension, however, that Diamond does not fully bring out: practical truth involves our making something true . Our thought is related truthfully to reality not as passive reflection, but through our actively shaping reality to reflect our thinking. The practical truth of an action based in deliberation requires that one deliberates well, on the basis of the right reasons and true factual premises, but also that one’s deliberation yields successful action that makes the world as one intends ( Anscombe 2005 , pp. 155-7). Does Diamond’s idea, that path-guiding thinking done well is true, involve a condition of success ? When Diamond writes that ‘statements that guide thinking … could themselves be described as true , if they are indeed doing their guiding-job well, if they get right how to guide thought well’ ( Diamond 2019 , p. 303, emphasis in original), some ambiguity remains. What if the thought we wish to guide obstinately refuses our guidance? Is our guiding-thinking nonetheless true, since the thinkers we are engaging with ought to follow the paths we have marked out, and avoid the ones we have tried to block?

Such questions come to the fore in the final part of Diamond’s book, on ethics. Diamond begins with David Wiggins’s claim that with enough experience, education, and time, one can come to see that ‘there is nothing else to think, but that slavery is unjust and insupportable’ ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 231, 272). The similarity of this formulation to Anscombe’s description of propositions that can only be true, whose opposites ‘peter out into nothingness’, leads Diamond to ask how far the ideas inspired by her reading of Anscombe might help clarify the shape of our moral thinking. She takes up an objection of Bernard Williams to Wiggins: his judgment depends on his grasp of moral concepts that might not be shared, so that an alternative point of view, from which one would not judge that the only thing to think is that slavery is unjust and insupportable, is conceivable. Wiggins responds that the only way to reject the claim that slavery is unjust is to abandon moral concepts central to having a shared moral life with others, such as justice . This is structurally similar to Anscombe’s idea of propositions such that the attempt to deny them involves a rejection of the form of rational thinking, leading to a kind of disintegration of thought.

Rather than intervening directly in this discussion, Diamond insists that we must look at actual reasoning about slavery close to . Wiggins had examined the deliberations of Parliament in 1833, concluding that the pro-slavery side could only come up with weak arguments concerning the preservation of rights in property ( Diamond 2019 , p. 284). But, Diamond argues, this understates the complexity of the issues and reasoning in the larger debate, coming in a context and a time when the pro-slavery side knew that their cause was basically lost. The true depth of the problem becomes clear if we consider the American context before the Civil War, when the pro-slavery side still had hopes of a legal victory.

Abolitionist arguments often deployed the famous words of the Declaration of Independence: ‘all men are created equal, … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …… among these … Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness’. Diamond says that this proclamation functioned in abolitionist argument as a ‘path-blocker’ ( Diamond 2019 , p. 287). The Declaration’s description of it as ‘self-evident’ – close to the idea of something the opposite of which cannot be coherently thought – may have enhanced the effectiveness of this move.

Diamond speaks of such path-blockers being invoked when one thinks that another’s thinking has ‘gone off the rails’ ( Diamond 2019 , p. 287). This is reminiscent of Anscombe’s famous remark: ‘if someone really thinks, in advance, that it is open to question whether such an action as procuring the judicial execution of the innocent should be quite excluded from consideration – I do not want to argue with him; he shows a corrupt mind’ ( Anscombe 1958 , p. 17). Diamond discusses the use of words like ‘crank’, ‘dotty’, ‘fanatic’, and ‘corrupt’ as terms of criticism indicating that someone’s thinking has gone astray ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 247-8, 294). Anscombe’s remark, together with Diamond’s discussion of ‘all men are created equal’, suggests that, faced with someone whose thinking has gone fundamentally wrong, we may be unable to engage them rationally, but can only make statements indicating where they have fallen into a corruption of thought, aiming to help others to avoid slipping into the same paths.

This response involves a claim of asymmetry , present in Wiggins’s argument about the injustice of slavery, Anscombe’s treatment of ‘“Someone” is not the name of someone’ and Diamond’s reading of Wittgenstein on the equations of arithmetic. In each case there is only one thing to think; its seeming opposite dissolves into incoherence. But, Diamond argues, examination of the debates over slavery in pre-Civil war America challenges this claim of asymmetry. Defenders of slavery did not feel compelled to abandon the concept of justice. Rather, they argued for the justice of slavery, in part inspired by Aristotle’s arguments in the Politics ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 284ff.). Moreover, they disputed the self-evident status of the claim that all men are created equal – arguing (as did John C. Calhoun) that it flies in the face of observation, and that liberty is a privilege to be earned, rather than something to which we have a right. Diamond’s summary of such arguments brings out how pro-slavery advocates, just as much as abolitionists, tried to put up ‘path-blockers’, taking their opponents’ thinking to have gone ‘down a path of disastrously tempting but utterly confused thought’ ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 289). Defenders of slavery rejected as going ‘off the rails’, thinking that involves ‘abstract’ notions of justice and general principles, and disregards the particular circumstances in which the institution of slavery existed. They argued that such thinking ‘goes adrift from all sense of our limits and fallibility as human beings’ ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 290).

Diamond’s examination of the details of the slavery debate shows that it is not easy to make what Wiggins calls the ‘insidious presumption of symmetry’ go away, and deepens the issues raised by Wiggins’s attempt to reject this presumption and defend the view that we can come to see (truthfully!) that there is only one thing to think about some moral questions. Yet Diamond’s conclusions may seem unsatisfying. She agrees with Wiggins on the fundamental claim that there is nothing to think but that slavery is unjust and insupportable. At the end of her final essay she offers general remarks about a ‘cumulative process within which we have shaped a form of life constitutive of moral rationality’ which enables us to ‘see to be blocked off, as failed thought , any conception of justice that excludes from justice-thought some group of human beings’ ( Diamond 2019 , pp. 304-5, emphasis in original). But she doesn’t address how to respond when we think that our interlocutors have gone down a route of failed thought, yet when we try to block their path, they happily walk right around our road-block, while accusing us of having gone down a faulty path – the precise situation she diagnoses in the slavery debates. Though Diamond ends her essay by endorsing Wiggins’s view that moral progress is possible – that ‘we can get something right, which we hadn’t got right before’ – her final sentence simply reads ‘My argument has been that following out Wiggins on slavery can help us see the issues here ’ ( Diamond 2019 , p. 306, emphasis added). One might hope for something more. I conclude with some suggestions of my own, like Diamond’s, inspired by Wittgenstein and illustrated by the slavery debates.

The choice of our words is so important, because the point is to hit the physiognomy of the matter exactly ; because only the thought that is precisely targeted can lead the right way . The railway carriage must be placed on the tracks exactly , so that it can keep on rolling as it is supposed to. ( Wittgenstein 2005 , p. 303e, underlining of ‘exactly’ in original, other emphasis added)

(Compare Diamond on thought ‘going off the rails’ and on our trying to indicate the right path for thought.) Hence, Wittgenstein continues, we must ‘make a tracing of the physiognomy of every error’ – ‘express all false processes so true to character’ that the other person will acknowledge that we have given ‘the correct expression of [their] feeling’, saying ‘Yes, that’s exactly the way I meant it’. Only in this way will the other recognize the ‘source of [their] thought’, and thereby see how their thought has gone wrong, and how to reposition it to go right.

Diamond conceives of mathematical equations as ‘path-indicators’, able to guide our thinking in inferring between non-mathematical propositions. But they are able to do this because one can view them as summarizing reasoning that someone (possibly oneself) has earlier carried out. Similarly, I suggest, a path- blocker requires preceding preparatory work that enables one to recognize its force. For an appeal to ‘all men are created equal’ to function effectively there must be such preparatory work showing the flaws in supposed alternative ways of thinking and the sources of such thinking going astray.

Diamond focused on the arguments of enslavers to reveal the difficulties Wiggins had tried to avoid. I suggest that some abolitionist arguments can be seen as showing to defenders of slavery that their own moral conceptions were confused, ‘petering out into nothingness’. Such arguments could set the stage for a ‘path-blocker’ like ‘all men are created equal’ to have its force, and may form part of the ‘cumulative process’ of forging a common moral point of view to which Diamond refers.

I close with one (admittedly limited) example of the kind of argument that might lead some enslavers to recognize that there is something incoherent in denying that slavery is unjust and insupportable. As Diamond mentions, many Christian missionaries came to regard slavery as ‘supportable’, given the greater importance, as they saw it, of bringing the Gospel to slaves ( Diamond 2019 , p. 297). They were willing to work within the slavery system, since it gave them access to souls to be saved. As Katharine Gerbner documents in Christian Slavery , an ideology developed promoting slavery as not only compatible with Christianity, but required by it. While similar to Aristotle’s account of natural slavery, this ideology also rested on Biblical acceptance of the institution. But opponents of slavery made a powerful challenge to the coherence of this ideology. In 1854, the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison wrote that ‘[i]f slaves are not men’, but items to be bought and sold, then ‘away with the horrible incongruity’ of catechizing them, baptizing them, treating them as members of churches. But ‘if they are men’ with the ‘same career of immortality’, under ‘the same law of God’, with ‘souls to be saved or lost’, with the same ‘hope of glory’, then ‘I claim for them all that we claim for ourselves, because we are created in the image of God ’ ( Garrison 1854 , pp. 17-18, emphasis added). Thus Garrison traces for the practitioners of ‘Christian slavery’ the physiognomy of their thinking, in a way that reveals its incoherence.

My suggestion is that the Wittgensteinian observation that we cannot simply lay down ‘path-blockers’ but must do the work, in a realistic spirit, of showing in detail why and how some paths are false tracks of thinking can add to the lessons that Diamond has extracted from her careful consideration of the slavery debate as a model for how to think about our moral thinking. I greatly enjoyed the intellectual journey that Diamond has invited us to take with her. I am here indicating one further step along the way that this journey suggested to me. *

Work on this review was supported by a Visiting Fellowship from All Souls College, Oxford.

Anscombe G.E.M. 1958 , ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, in Philosophy 33

Anscombe G.E.M. 2005 , ’Practical Truth’, in her Human Life, Action and Ethics , eds. Geach , Gormally ( Exeter : Imprint Academic)

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Diamond Cora 1991 , The Realistic Spirit: Wittgenstein, Philosophy and the Mind ( Cambridge, MA : MIT Press)

Diamond Cora 2019 , Reading Wittgenstein with Anscombe, Going On to Ethics ( Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press)

Garrison William Lloyd 1854 , No Compromise with Slavery ( New York : American Anti-Slavery Society)

Gerbner Katharine 2018 , Christian Slavery: conversion and race in the protestant Atlantic world ( Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press)

Hacker P.M.S. 2021 , ‘Introduction’, in Bazzocchi L. (ed.) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: Centenary Edition ( London : Anthem Press)

Wittgenstein Ludwig 2005 , The Big Typescript: German-English Scholars’ Edition eds. and trans. Luckhardt , Aue ( Malden, MA : Blackwell Publishing)

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