Outcasts from Evolution: Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859-1900
A research book that follows how nineteenth-century scientific discourse around evolution was converted into arguments for racial hierarchy. It examines the link between scientific certainty and public policy, and shows how discriminatory ideas were reinforced from within scholarship itself.
Work Information
It traces the moment when evolutionary theory became a rationale for discrimination.
The Southern Illinois University Press paperback runs 248 pages. It traces the ideas of racial superiority held by scientists and social thinkers after Darwin, and shows how “science” helped justify prejudice in late-nineteenth-century America.
Review Summaries
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It is regarded as an important study for understanding the racial science of its era. Its careful use of sources and its concrete treatment of the intersection between science and social policy are seen as major strengths.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Southern Illinois Univ Pr
- Published
- 1996-01-02
- Pages
- 232 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 1.78 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780809319824
- ISBN-10
- 0809319829
- Price
- 5120 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/History/Americas/United States/19th Century
In the only book to date to explore the period between the 1859 publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species and the discovery in 1900 of Gregor Mendel’s experiments in genetics, John S. Haller, Jr., shows the relationship between scientific "conviction" and public policy. He focuses on the numerous liberally educated American scientists who were caught up in the triumph of evolutionary ideas and who sought to apply those ideas to comparative morality, health, and the physiognomy of nonwhite races. During this period, the natural and social scientists of the day not only accepted without question the genetic and cultural superiority of the Caucasian; they also asserted that the Caucasian race held a monopoly on evolutionary progress, arguing that "inferior races" were no more than evolutionary survivors doomed by their genetic legacy to remain outcasts from evolution. Hereditarians and evolutionists believed that "less fit" human races were perishing from the rigors of civilization’s struggle and competition. Indeed, racial inferiority lay at the very foundation of the evolutionary framework and, remaining there, rose to the pinnacle of "truth" with the myth of scientific certainty.
John S. Haller, Jr., is the author of Medical Protestants: The Eclectics in American Medicine, 1825–1939 and Farmcarts to Fords: A History of the Military Ambulance, 1790–1925, both available from Southern Illinois University Press. John S. Haller, Jr., is the author of Medical Protestants: The Eclectics in American Medicine, 1825–1939 and Farmcarts to Fords: A History of the Military Ambulance, 1790–1925, both available from Southern Illinois University Press.
Reviews
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specifically detailed how the scientific basis for racism in the modern western world was established, and how it served to justify prejudice and discrimination toward non-white citizens. it was more than captivating to me; it was stunning. thank you so much dr. haller. it's people like you who keep me from hating the entire white race. ha, ha, ha, (kidding on the square). andy florez (mexican)
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This is one of the most influential books I have ever read. It delves into the extreme lengths some within the society will go to keep a false narrative alive to preserve their supremacy, enforce a policy, or manipulate public opinion. This book explores a justification for slavery, but has application to today's political obstruction.