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Cover

"Race" Is a Four-Letter Word

The Genesis of the Concept

C. Loring Brace

Publication Date - 17 February 2005

ISBN: 9780195173512

336 pages
Paperback
6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches

In Stock

A tour de force exploration of the concept of race

Description

A tour de force work by a leading scholar, "Race" Is a Four-Letter Word explores the history of the concept of race in America, the reasons why the concept has no biological validity, and the ways in which it grew to become accepted as an idea that virtually everyone regards as self-evident. An ardent and eloquent opponent of typology, essentialism, and stereotyping, C. Loring Brace has based this engaging study on the "Problems of Race" course that he has taught at the University of Michigan for the past thirty-five years.
Opening with an explanation of why the concept of race is biologically indefensible, "Race" Is a Four-Letter Word shows how the major elements of human biological variation have unrelated distributions and cannot be understood if the existence of "races" is assumed as a starting point. The book then examines the course of events that created the concept of race, journeying through time from Herodotus through Marco Polo; to the Renaissance and the role of the New World; on up to the American Civil War, the curious results of the alliance switch in World War I, Arthur Jensen, The Bell Curve, J. Philippe Rushton, and the Pioneer Fund in the twenty-first century.
Ideal as a supplementary text in anthropology courses, "Race" Is a Four-Letter Word can also be used in history of science courses and sociology courses. It is captivating reading for professionals and anyone else who seeks enlightenment on the socially debatable issue of "race."

Reviews

"I found this book coherent, plausible, scholarly, engaging, and entertaining to read. If I were recommending this text to my colleagues, I would point to its thorough historical scope and scholarship, its ingratiating style, its distinctly individual voice, and its unique and valuable insights. This is a good, interesting, well-written book by someone who knows a great deal about both human biology and intellectual history."--Matt Cartmill, Professor of Anthropology, Duke University

"The Brace manuscript is a tour de force. It represents a major contribution to our understanding of the history of race and racism."--George Armelagos, Professor of Anthropology, Emory University

"This is a splendid manuscript on a much needed topic. The topic is timely and I have the greatest respect for the erudition and fine writing style that Dr. Brace provides in this original work. Dr. Brace is a highly respected biological anthropologist and this book will attract a wide reading audience of professionals and other readers who seek enlightenment on the socially debatable issue of race."--Kenneth A. R. Kennedy, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Anthropology, and Asian Studies, Cornell University

"I would recommend this text without reservation to anyone who wants a detailed history of the idea of race in science. If one wants to know what individual scientists were doing and thinking, and one does not have time to read them, then this is THE BOOK."--Alan Goodman, Professor of Biological Anthropology, Hampshire College

Table of Contents

    Preface
    Introduction
    1. THE BIOLOGY OF HUMAN VARIATION
    Background of a Belief
    Adaptive Traits: Clines
    2. THE PERCEPTION OF HUMAN DIFFERENCES IN THE PAST
    What Shall We Call "Them?"
    The Peasant Perspective
    Antiquity
    Renaissance
    Enlightenment: The "Age of Reason"
    Science and The Greatness of God
    The Limits of Reason
    Linnaeus and Classification
    Buffon and Continuity
    Camper and the Facial Angle
    Assessing the Meaning of Human Differences
    3. ONE ORIGIN OR MANY?
    The Roots of "Polygenism"
    Monogenism
    4. ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT
    Blumenbach and "Degeneration"
    The Scottish Enlightenment Comes to America
    Samuel Stanhope Smith: "Race" From the Perspective of the American Enlightenment
    5. THE TRIUMPH OF FEELING OVER REASON
    Romanticism
    6. PHRENOLOGY
    7. THE FOUNDING OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF ANTHROPOLOGY
    The Postcolonial United States of America
    Samuel George Morton and the American Origin of Biological Anthropology
    8. PASSING THE TORCH
    Louis Agassiz, Archetypical American
    9. THE DEMISE OF MONOGENISM AND THE RISE OF POLYGENISM
    John Bachman: The Last Monogenist
    Josiah Clark Nott: The Voice of American Racialism
    Scotland: Dr. Robert Knox
    France: Comte de Gobineau
    10. TOWARD A WAR OVER SLAVERY AND AFTERWARD
    George R. Gliddon
    "Race" and Politics
    War and Its Aftermath
    11. THE FRENCH CONNECTION
    Paul Broca and the Professionalization of Biological Anthropology
    12. THE LEGACY OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL IN AMERICA
    Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841-1906)
    The First World War
    The French Connection and the Concept of "Race"
    William Z. Ripley and the Magic Three
    Madison Grant
    Lothrop Stoddard
    13. THE ETHOS OF EUGENICS
    Eugenics
    Eugenics Exported to America
    Germany
    "Race" and Eugenics Applied to the Shaping of America
    14. HENRY FORD AND THE ETHOS OF THE HOLOCAUST
    The Anti-Semitism of Henry Ford
    The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
    15. THE OUTLOOK OF THE "BIGOT BRIGADE"
    "Race" and "Intelligence"
    Statistical Theology and the Worship of g
    Sir Cyril Burt: "Scientific" Fraud
    16. THE GALTONIAN LEGACY IN AMERICA
    World War I
    "Intelligence" and Immigration
    Lewis Terman and Genetic Predestination
    Walter Lippmann Versus the Termanites
    17. "RACE" IN BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
    Ales Hrdlicka and the Smithsonian: Organizing the Profession
    Academia and the Patterns of Thought in Biological Anthropology: Sir Arthur Keith
    Keith's Influence on America: Earnest Albert Hooton
    Carleton Coon on "Race"
    Science and Society on "Race" After World War II
    18. THE LEGACY OF THE PIONEER FUND
    The Promotion of "Scientific" Racism
    Jensenism
    The Bell Curve
    J. Philippe Rushton: Apostle of Apartheid
    Richard Lynn
    19. "OTHERISM"
    Afterthoughts
    Sources Cited
    Index

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