The American Century and the Third World

To begin thinking about this subject, it seemed appropriate to retrieve the 17 February 1941 issue of Life that carried Henry Luce's original essay, “The American Century.” My faith in college students’ probity and tender concern for their peers was requited when I found the speech ripped out of the University of Chicago library's lone copy. So I contented myself with perusing what remained of the magazine. This single issue displayed, by quick count, 447 white people, 46 blacks, 1 Hispanic, and no Asians (not counting the evanescent pages 61 to 66, where Henry Luce once held forth). Nineteen of the blacks come from a scene in Cabin in the Sky, a Broadway musical with an all-black cast; the majority of these are very light skinned and some appear to be white. A singular black face also inhabits a photo of the Art Students League of New York. The remaining blacks are residents of Whale Cay in the Bahamas, a private island owned by Betty Carstair, an heiress of the Standard Oil Bostwick family.