Michael O’Malley is Professor of History at George Mason University. This interview is based on his new book, The Color of Family: History, Race, and the Politics of Ancestry (University of Chicago Press, 2024).
JF: What led you to write The Color of Family?
MO: The Color of Family started from the discovery that ancestors of mine—one born in Ireland—were named as black people by the state of Virginia. I wanted to understand how that would have happened, but also what it might mean. It led me to a wider exploration of family history and its intersection with state authority.
JF: In 2 sentences, what is the argument of The Color of Family?
MO: Ancestry is always a political construction, and can’t be separated from history and politics. Genealogy and history need to talk to each other more.
JF: Why do we need to read The Color of Family?
MO: The book starts from the premise that genealogical records are artifacts of government. Millions of ancestors only exist to us because of records. So in a real sense records create the identity they imagine. Individualism is an idea: administrative records, genealogical records, are the tools that make it real. Similarly, genealogical records served to make “race” real. We should stop thinking of ourselves as “being Irish” or “being Chinese” and start thinking of ourselves as “having ancestors from X and Y and Z.”
JF: Why and when did you become an American historian?
MO: I never really liked history in high school but as a college freshman I took an intro to Western Civilization course and suddenly realized “I’d be good at this: this is what I should do.” A conversion experience, like Saul on the road to Damascus, but with footnotes and tweed.
JF: What is your next project?
MO: I’m researching a book on the relationship between music and music making machines. It will start with how mechanical clocks regularized tempo, and end with AI as a machine for making music. There will be a lot about player pianos and mechanical recording.
JF: Thanks, Michael!