"Reviewed Work(s): The Passing of the Great Race: Or the Racial Basis of European History by Madison Grant. During Grant's long career as a conservationist he was pivotal in protecting many different species of animals through his environmental and philanthropic organizations. Additionally, a 1921 article by then Vice President Calvin Coolidge published in Good Housekeeping echoed many of the ideas presented in The Passing of the Great Race, as Coolidge called for immigration restriction and condemned interracial marriages. [8], By 1937, the book sold 17,000 copies in the U.S. According to historian Winston, present-day neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups continue to cite The Passing of the Great Race as foundational to their movement. Grant argues that the Alpines are best suited as agricultural peasants, whereas Mediterraneans are superior in art and other intellectual pursuits. Each race differs in the relative proportion of what we may term good and bad strains, just as nations do, or, for that matter, sections and classes of the same nation. By Terry Gross. anyone who doesnt believe that this book has been the basis for Western policy for the last 75 years either hasnt read it or hasnt turned their head from side to side and looked around. [Nordic] race is long skulled, very tall, fair skinned with blond or brown hair and light colored eyes. The population of the so-called Baltic provinces of Russia is everywhere Nordic and their affinities are with Scandinavia and Germany rather than with Slavic Moscovy. The preface of the book is written by Jared Taylor, editor of the magazine American Renaissance, among other positions. Know your enemy. The German translation of The Passing of the Great Race also influenced the eugenics programs and genocide that Hitler and Nazi Germany committed. Charles Scribners Sons in New York City, New York, published the volume. And it's not even the book's startling fundamental premise - that race grounds culture, religion, and the state (and not the other way around.) So long as there is in the world a freely breeding stock or race that has in it an inherent capacity for development and growth, mankind will continue to ascend until, possibly through the selection arid regulation of breeding as intelligently applied as in the case of domestic animals, it will control its own destiny and attain moral heights as yet unimagined. ed., with a documentary supplement, with prefaces by Henry Fairfield Osborn, Advanced embedding details, examples, and help. According to Spiro, Grants interest in conservation naturally led to his interest in eugenics, as Grant saw both movements as a way of preserving the old country from threats of extinction. The continuity of physical traits and the limitation of the effects of environment to the individual only are now so thoroughly recognized by scientists that it is at most a question of time when the social consequences which result from such crossings will be generally understood by the public at large. In his biography of Grant,Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics and the Legacy of Madison Grant, Jonathan Spiro writes that almost nothing inThe Passing of the Great Raceis original. Rather, the book is a compendium of the work of other scholars, and almost every paragraph can be directly traced back to figures such as the European scientific racists Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. The section of any community that produces leaders or genius of any sort is only a minute percentage. Despite Boass objections, many scientists praised The Passing of the Great Race, particularly for its value in communicating racial science to the public. These moral and physical characters are not limited to one race but given traits do occur with more frequency in one race than in another. The Passing of the Great Race is one of the most prominent racially oriented books of all times, written by the most influential American conservationist that ever lived. Grant reasons that the new immigrants were of different races and were creating separate societies within America including ethnic lobby groups, criminal syndicates, and political machines which were undermining the socio-political structure of the country and in turn the traditional Anglo-Saxon colonial stocks, as well as all Nordic stocks. Grant feels that certain parts of Europe were underdeveloped and a source of racial stocks unqualified for the Nordic political structure of the U.S. Grant is also interested in the impact of the expansion of the U.S. Black population into the urban areas of the North. Search the history of over 797 billion [6] The fact that the blood shows as "blue" through the fair Nordic skin is also to be taken into account. This new edition supercedes all others in many respects. In addition to Galtons eugenics works, Grant drew from earlier attempts to classify humans into hierarchies according to race. As a result, Grant believes that democracies that average people run are less efficient than aristocracies ruled by men qualified by noble birth. The Nordic, in his hypothesis, was "Homo europaeus, the white man par excellence. This something which we call "genius" is not a matter of family, but of stock or strain, and is inherited in precisely the same manner as are the purely physical characters. In the US, Grants and other eugenicists vision of negative eugenics was enacted through state laws like the Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924 that allowed state institutions, such as prisons and asylums for people with mental illnesses, to sterilize people without their consent. ed., with a documentary supplement, with prefaces by Henry Fairfield Osborn by Grant, Madison, 1865-1937; Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 1857-1935 Publication date 1922 Topics Ethnology -- Europe Publisher New York Scribner Collection robarts; toronto Digitizing sponsor msn Grant explicitly states that the laws of nature require the obliteration of people he classifies as unfit, or not genetically strong enough to survive without assistance. It is scarcely necessary to cite the universal distrust, often contempt, that the half-breed between two sharply contrasted races inspires the world over. History In 1916, eugenicist Madison Grant [4] published the book The Passing of the Great Race; or The Racial Basis of European History, hereafter The Passing of the Great Race, where he claimed that northern Europeans, or Nordics, are biologically and culturally superior to the rest of humanity. The work was categorised by the publisher as "science" and so never had a chance at mass popularity. An acutely prophetic "no more brother wars" book, published in 1916. Machines may be able to crunch number and analyze data, but they can't match the human touch when it come to customer service, teamwork, and collaboration. more details. "Racism, the Immigration Enforcement Regime, and the Implications for Racial Inequality in the Lives of Undocumented Young Adults. In this manner, Grant appeared to be studiously following scientific theory. If the Melting Pot is allowed to boil without control and we continue to follow our national motto and deliberately blind ourselves to all "distinctions of race, creed or color," the type of native American of Colonial descent will become as extinct as the Athenian of the age of Pericles, and the Viking of the days of Rollo. Following the publication of The Passing of the Great Race, Grant took an active role in many influential eugenics organizations in the US, including the Eugenics Research Association, The Galton Society for the Study of the Origin and Evolution of Man, the American Eugenics Society, and the International Commission on Eugenics. The first half is Grant describing categories based on physical traits, with Nordic and Teutonic races superior, followed by Alpine and Mediterranean, then Baltic and Slav, and negroes the lowest. I started to read to book for the sole purpose of finding intellectual ideas present in the contemporary right-wing terrorism and the growing "eco-fascist" movement, but unfortunately didn't find any, so the book is only valuable as a historical account of early American fascination with eugenics. The US Congress did not adjust the quotas in the following decades to accommodate Jewish refugees fleeing the genocide committed by Nazi Germany. The Passing Of The Great Race(1917) by Madison Grant. According to the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, as of 2021, anthropologists know that no combination of physical traits can be used to reliably classify humans into racial groups because race represents social, not biological, categories. A fantastically "just-so" book: things are ordered exactly as Grant wishes them to be, he just makes up whatever conditions he needs to knit things together. Whether we like to admit it or not, the result of the mixture of two races, in the long run, gives us a race reverting to the more ancient, generalized and lower type. 1923, C. Scribner's sons. The moral tendency of the heredity interpretation of history is for our day and generation and is in strong accord with the true spirit of the modern eugenics movement in relation to patriotism, namely, the conservation and multiplication for our country of the best spiritual, moral, intellectual and physical forces of heredity; thus only will the integrity of our institutions be maintained in the future. Philanthropy and noble purpose dictated the doctrine expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the document which to-day constitutes the actual basis of American institutions. Race feeling may be called prejudice by those whose careers are cramped by it but it is a natural antipathy which serves to maintain the purity of type. Moral, intellectual and spiritual attributes are as persistent as physical characters and are transmitted substantially unchanged from generation to generation. This purpose has been accomplished thoroughly, and one of the most far-reaching effects of . As measured in terms of centuries these characters are fixed and rigid and the only benefit to be derived from a changed environment and better food conditions is the opportunity afforded a race which has lived under adverse conditions to achieve its maximum development but the limits of that development are fixed for it by heredity and not by environment. Mistaken regard for what are believed to be divine laws and a sentimental belief in the sanctity of human life tend to prevent both the elimination of defective infants and the sterilization of such adults as are themselves of no value to the community. The Passing of the Great Race: The Racial Basis of European History (With Original 1916 Illustrations in Full Color) Published September 10th 2019 by Suzeteo Enterprises. I do recommend looking into modern day research on this topic. Or the racial basis of European history This is a must-have book for anyone who supports white supremacy, eugenics, and racism. Human society is like a serpent dragging its long body on the ground, but with the head always thrust a little in advance and a little elevated above the earth. The mental characteristics of the Mediterranean race are well known, and this race, while inferior in bodily stamina to both the Nordic and the Alpine, is probably the superior of both, certainly of the Alpines, in intellectual attainments. ", Woods, Frederick Adams. The essential character of all these racial mixtures is a lack of harmony - both physical and mental - in the first few generations. Definite traces remain of the blood of the Mongols both in isolated and compact groups in south Russia and also scattered throughout the whole country as far west as the German boundary. 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars. Be the first to write a review. In 1916, eugenicist Madison Grant published the book The Passing of the Great Race; or The Racial Basis of European History, hereafter The Passing of the Great Race, where he claimed that northern Europeans, or Nordics, are biologically and culturally superior to the rest of humanity. Even those rulers who most abused this power put down with merciless rigor the antisocial elements, such as pirates, brigands or anarchists, which impair the progress of a community, as disease or wounds cripple an individual. It's not that he doesn't know historical facts (in part), and it's not that he doesn't know anthropological facts (in part). The tendency in a democracy is toward a standardization of type and a diminution of the influence of genius. What the Melting Pot actually does in practice can be seen in Mexico, where the absorption of the blood of the original Spanish conquerors by the native Indian population has produced the racial mixture which we call Mexican and which is now engaged in demonstrating its incapacity for self-government. "U.S. Immigration Timeline." This is a practical, merciful, and inevitable solution of the whole problem, and can be applied to an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased, and the insane, and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives, and perhaps ultimately to worthless race types. A weird mixture of phrenology, social Darwinism, and anthropology for the sole purpose of establishing the superiority of the "Nordic" race and justification of eugenics in maintaining the purity of races. My favorite personally is his cover for the 2012 edition of Madison Grant's The Passing of The Great Race, with a foreword by none other than Jared Taylor, with his name printed on the front cover. The impulse upward, however, is supplied by a very small number of nations and by a very small proportion of the population in such nations. Date 1916 1916) (25 January 2006 (according to Exifdata)) Source After the US Supreme Court upheld sterilization laws as constitutional in the 1927 case Buck v. Bell, thirty states passed similar laws, leading to as many as 70,000 forced sterilizations that disproportionately affected poor women of color according to journalist and lawyer Adam Cohen. In the democratic forms of government the operation of universal suffrage tends toward the selection of the average man for public office rather than the man qualified by birth, education and integrity. The Passing of the Great Race was mentioned during the 1945 and 1946 Nuremberg Trials held in Nuremberg, Germany, that prosecuted Nazi leadership for war crimes committed during World War II. Of this we have many examples in America. Boas critiqued Grants misconceptions about heredity, such as his assumption that physical traits such as skin color operated according to simple Mendelian genetics, as well as his refusal to consider the effect of environment on physical traits used for racial classification. The book was translated into several European languages in its day. Anthropologist Franz Boas called The Passing of the Great Race a modern retelling of works by Joseph Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, even though Grant does not explicitly cite them. By the time of Grants death in 1937, Passing had reportedly sold 16,000 copies in the US according to Grants New York Times Obituary. The US Supreme Court did not overturn such laws, called anti-miscegenation laws, until the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case. Women in all human races, as the females among all mammals, tend to exhibit the older, more generalized and primitive traits of the past of the race. For 200 years the Spanish infantry had no equal in Europe but this distinction disappeared with the opening decades of the seventeenth century. He also attributed criticism of the first edition of the book to widespread anti-German sentiment during World War I. Franz Boas, a Jewish immigrant from Germany and professor of anthropology at Columbia University in New York City wrote one of the most critical reviews of The Passing of the Great Race. The final three chapters consider the relationship between the Nordic race and the Aryan group of languages. According to Spiro, the public debate inspired by the books publication contributed to the passage of the Immigration Act of 1924 that restricted immigration to the US for forty years. This is a practical, merciful and inevitable solution of the whole problem and can be applied to an ever widening circle of social discards, beginning always with the criminal, the diseased and the insane and extending gradually to types which may be called weaklings rather than defectives and perhaps ultimately to worthless race types." ed., with a documentary supplement, with prefaces by Henry Fairfield Osborn. Grant also supports eugenics, advocating the sterilization of "undesirables", a treatment possibly to be extended to "types which may be called weaklings" and "perhaps ultimately to worthless race types": A rigid system of selection through the elimination of those who are weak or unfitin other words social failureswould solve the whole question in one hundred years, as well as enable us to get rid of the undesirables who crowd our jails, hospitals, and insane asylums. Deep seated Castilian traditions associate aristocracy with blondness and the sangre azul, or blue blood of Spain, probably refers to the blue eye of the Goth, whose traditional claim to lordship is also shown in the Spanish name for gentleman, "hidalgo," said to mean "the son of the Goth." Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. "Racist"? "Reviewed Work(s): The Passing of the Great Race or the Racial Basis of European History by Madison Grant. read about 54 pages for class to analyze Eugenics movement; do not think I could read any more of this A concise, but antiquated overview of European physical anthropology. I was interested to note the first publish date was 1917 and the book I was reading was reprinted in 1970. While emphasizing the importance of race, it must not be forgotten that environment, while it does not alter the potential capacity of the stock, can perform miracles in the development of the individual. In contrast, Grant claims that Nordics are superior soldiers, sailors, and explorers, but above all, they are skillful leaders.