The essays of this collection explore how ideas about 'blood' in science and literature have supported, at various points in history and in various places in the circum-Atlantic world, fantasies of human embodiment and human difference that serve to naturalize existing hierarchies. "The essays in this volume are motivated by the interconnection between blood and the concept of race. ? The Cultural Politics of Blood works to interrogate and often undermine the most commonly accepted cultural histories of blood and race. ? This challenging and provocative collection will be of great value to scholars of blood, race, or any related concept within the period covered." (Ariane M. Balizet, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 69 (3), 2016)