Boken är ett unikt bidrag till antiziganismforskningen - det vill saga forskningen om fordomar, negativa stereotyper och rasism riktade mot romer och resande, som den yttrar sig i forskning, lagstiftning och social praktik. Här drar Selling djupare historiska linjer for att visa pa hur antiziganistiska forestallningar som befastades i den orientalistiska forskningslitteraturen fran 1700-talet (Grellmann, men aven de svenska avhandlingarna av Bjorckman och Rabenius) aterproducerades och formade svensk diskurs om "zigenare" och "tattare" langt in pa 1900- talet. Dessa diskurser politiserades och radikaliserades ytterligare genom liering med rasbiologin och rashygienen som var brett politiskt forankrade i det tidiga folkhemmets Sverige. Selling anvander sig aven har av en teknik som ar typisk for hans forskning, genom att valja ut ett antal ganska olika kalltyper och fallstudier som syftar till att fa fram olika diskurspositioner. Ivar Lo-Johanssons forfattarskap, Katarina Taikons medborgarrattsliga inspel och etnologen Karl-Olov Arntsbergs kritik av den mangkulturella toleransen far pa sa vis illustrera olika sidor av diskursen kring "zigenare", antiziganismens olika ansikten och forsok till att etablera romska motdiskurser mot antiziganistiska strukturer. Utover detta anvands tva detaljerade fallstudier: de s.k. "tattarkravallerna" i Jonkoping 1948 och Ludvikafallet i 1956 (en avhysning av romer med rattsligt efterspel dar polisen slutligen falldes for tjanstefel). Genom fallstudierna far Selling syn pa en antiziganistisk social praktik som saknade stod i lagar och forordningar men reproducerades i medier, kommunpolitiken, poliskaren och delar av rattsvasendet. En annan mycket viktig aspekt som Sellings bok tar upp (och satter pa kartan for forsta gang i Sverige) ar den romantiserande och exotifierande filoziganismen som en underart av antiziganism.

The book is a unique contribution to antigypsyism research - that is, the research on prejudice, negative stereotypes and racism directed against Roma and Travellers, as it manifests itself in research, legislation and social practice. Here, Selling draws deeper historical lines to show how antigypsyist notions that were consolidated in the Orientalist research literature of the 18th century (Grellmann, but also the Swedish treatises by Björckman and Rabenius) were reproduced and shaped Swedish discourse on "gypsies" and "tattare" well into the 20th century. These discourses were further politicized and radicalized through association with eugenics and eugenics, which were broadly politically rooted in the early Sweden of the welfare state. Selling also uses a technique typical of his research, by selecting a number of quite different types of sources and case studies that aim to elicit different discourse positions. Ivar Lo-Johansson's writings, Katarina Taikon's civil rights input and ethnologist Karl-Olov Arntsberg's critique of multicultural tolerance are thus allowed to illustrate different sides of the discourse around "gypsies", the different faces of anti-gypsyism and attempts to establish Roma counter-discourses against anti-gypsy structures. In addition to this, two detailed case studies are used: the so-called "tattar riots" in Jönköping in 1948 and the Ludvika case in 1956 (an eviction of Roma with legal repercussions where the police were finally convicted of misconduct). Through the case studies, Selling sees an antigypsyist social practice that lacked support in laws and regulations but was reproduced in the media, municipal politics, the police and parts of the judicial system. Another very important aspect that Selling's book addresses (and puts on the map for the first time in Sweden) is the romanticizing and exotifying philozigananism as a subspecies of antigypsyism.