The Nordic in the Scientific Racial Discourses in the United States and Northern Europe in the Interwar Period: The Passing of Greatness

The term Nordic in relation to race science was introduced in the early twentieth century in the United States by Madison Grant. Though the notion of the supremacy of the races of Northern Europe was frequently discussed in the nineteenth century, the prominent terms in this discussion were Aryan or Teutonic, rather than Nordic. The shift from Aryan to Nordic was a gradual one. Between 1853 and 1855, the term Aryan race was first used by the French author Arthur de Gobineau to describe what he regarded as the superior race of Northern Europe.1 In 1899, the economist William Ripley introduced the term Teutonic race, which, according to him, was based mainly in the United States, Great Britain and Germany.2 He did not specifically consider Scandinavia in his definition. Madison Grant then introduced the term Nordic and put the Nordic countries – or to be more precise, Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) – on the racial map as the core of civilisation and political order.3 In the young historian and journalist Lothrop Stoddard (1883– 1950) Grant found a protégée who continued his legacy of scientific racism well into the 1930s with books like The Rising Tide of Color against White World-Supremacy (1922) and The Racial Realities in Europe (1924).4 Both were convinced that the Nordic race was superior and the most civilised of all races, the race that led any great nation to success. They argued that only with a high degree of Nordic blood could a society be politically,


Introduction
The term Nordic in relation to race science was introduced in the earlytwentieth century in the United States by Madison Grant.Thoughthe notion of the supremacy of the raceso fN orthernE urope was frequentlydiscussed in the nineteenth century,t he prominent terms in this discussion were Aryan or Teutonic,r ather than Nordic. The shift from Aryant oN ordic was ag radual one. Between 1853 and 1855,the term Aryanr ace was first used by the French author Arthur de Gobineautodescribe what he regarded as the superior race of NorthernEurope.¹ In 1899,the economist William Ripley introducedthe term Teutonic race,which, according to him, was based mainlyinthe United States,Great Britainand Germany.² He did not specificallyc onsider Scandinaviai nh is definition.
Madison Grant then introducedthe term Nordic and put the Nordic countries -or to be more precise, Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden and Norway) -on the racialm ap as the coreo fc ivilisation and political order.³ In the young historian and journalist Lothrop Stoddard( 1883 -1950) Grant found ap rotégée who continued his legacyofscientificracism well into the 1930s with books like TheRising Tide of Color against WhiteWorld-Supremacy (1922) and TheRacial Realities in Europe (1924).⁴ Both werec onvinced that the Nordic race was superior and the most civilised of all races,the race that led anygreat nation to success. They argued that onlyw ith ahighdegree of Nordic blood could asociety be politically, economically, and sociallysuccessful. If the degree of Nordic blood decreased in as ociety,c ivilisation would likewise decline.⁵ This terminological shift was connected to an interplayofs cientific and political changes. The increasing interestofracial scientists and anthropologists in the understanding of human races was related to the political climate in the United States This wasinfluenced by fears of poorer European immigrants seeking their fortunes in the new world and the impact of this on US society.⁶ There was aconsolidation of racialdiscourse in science especiallyafter the turn of the century,a nd after the Great Wart his discourse found its wayi nto politics and society.This discussion peaked in the Immigration Acto f1 924, which regulated immigration to the United States on racial grounds.T he Actf avoured people from NorthernE urope and prevented Southern and Eastern Europeans from enteringt he United States.⁷ However,t he idea of as uperior Nordic race found support not onlyi nt he United States but alsoinmanyNorthernEuropean countries.InGermany, for example,l eading racial scientists like EugenF ischer,F ritz Lenz, and Hans F.K. Günther discussed notions of asuperior nordische Rasse and its possible decline through race mixing.⁸ In the Nordic countries,r acial biologists,s uch as the Swede Herman Lundborg, adopted the term nordisk in their race studies in the earlyt wentieth century, though its use did not originatet here. The adoptiono f Nordic terminologyi nt he Nordic countries followed ap attern familiar from other usages of the rhetorics of Nordicness -it was largely an adoption of US uses.⁹ The term "Nordic" [nordisch/nordisk]w as the key term in racial science and the conceptualization of racial superiority and hierarchyi ne arlyt wentieth-century Germany and Sweden. In Germany, the racial theorists Erwin Baur,E ugen Fischer,a nd Fritz Lenz publishedt heir book Menschliche Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene (1921/1931) in which they claimedt hat the members of the nordische Rasse werethe bravest and most intelligent.¹⁰ Here nordisch refers to ageographical areaoccupied mainlybypeople of the nordische Rasse -NorthernEurope, Northwest Europe, and the coastal areas of the North and Baltic seas.¹¹ These theorists declared the term germanisch to be at ermo ft he past,usedb ecause the nordische Rasse had its origin in the German Kaiserreich of the Middle Ages and had developedfrom there.¹² The term Aryan,asused by Ripleyin1899, was for them apurelylinguistic term that did not relatetothe culturalcontext.¹³ While the German racialscientists sawthe origin of the Nordic race in Germany, the Swedish researchers, such as the racialb iologist Herman Lundborg, understood Sweden as the geographical centreo ft he nordiskr as. He, as with Grant and the German colleagues, used the term nordisk to refer to ag eographical location its inhabitants.Yet,h eargued that the nordiskr as was mainlydefined by an anthropological bond and that no racialh ierarchies could be detected between the Nordic race and other European races.¹⁴ The different conceptualisation and nationallydefined use of the terms Nordic, nordisch, and nordisk had an effect on the racialimplications made by the different researchers as well as the racialist resultso ft heirr esearch.
This chapter discusses Grant and Stoddard'sconceptualisation of the Nordic race as as uperior race.T he primary question is: how did Grant and Stoddard form the notion of Nordicness in their racialtheory?Why did Grant and Stoddard use the termN ordic rather thanf ollowing William Ripley'sc onceptualisation of the Teutonic or Germanic race?¹⁵ Since the discourse of the Nordic race was not limited to the United States but similar ideas emergeda tt he same time in Europe, Ic ompareh ow the concept of Nordicness and Nordic race can be understood in the context of similar ideas, taking Sweden and Germany as case studies. Ic hose Sweden as the exemplary casef or the Nordic countries because in Nordic racialtheory the Nordic countries constituted the corearea of the Nordic race with the "purest" Nordic people. Yet, though the Nordic race discourse was very active in Sweden in the interwar period, no political radicalisation resulted from it.Asthe second case, IselectedGermanybecause Germanracialtheorists considered Germanyt obeacountry with asignificant number of Nordic people The Nordici nt he Scientific RacialD iscourses and the idea of Nordic superiority was politically radicalised in the 1930s. Ishow how the geographical and political environment shaped the concept of the Nordic race, despite the cross-national similarities of the discourse. Here, notions of at ransnationalt ransfer of culture and knowledge are relevant to demonstrate how the knowledge and understanding of the concept of the Nordic race travelled across the Atlantic Ocean and within Europe in the earlytwentieth century.¹⁶ In 2011, JohannesB urgers comparedG rant'sr acialt heory to the theories of Hungarian Zionist Max Nordau.¹⁷ Ib uild on this comparative literature.The emphasis here is not on Grant'sbiography, rather it is on Grant'sconceptualization of the Nordic race and his contribution to the development of am ovement proclaiming Nordic and White supremacy in the United Statesd uringt he 1920s.
Manythinkers engaged in discussions about the concept of aNordic race in Europe duringt he 1920sa nd 1930s. In what follows, Id rawo ns tudies of these debates by Nikola Karcher,Hans-JürgenL utzhöft, and Gunnar Brobergwith Nils Roll-Hansen, as well as my own work, and for the Swedish context,onstudies by Mattias Tydén and Maria Björkman to show the similarities and differencesb etween the Northern European and US Nordic discourse.¹⁸ The chapter is divided into three parts. Thef irst part discusses the development of scientific racism and the conceptualizationofthe Nordic race as asuperior race in the United States, with aparticularf ocus on the works of Grant and Stoddard. Ishow whyGrant and Stoddardfavoured the term Nordic over the previous terms Germanic or Teutonic and how this conceptual turn took place. In the second part,Iplace the US discourse in relation to similar discourses in Germany and Sweden. Is how that despite common fears about the degeneration of the Nordic race and the impact of this on civilisation,t he conceptualisation of the Nordic race differed, geographicallya nd conceptually, across the Atlantic Ocean. In the third part,Ifocus on the transnationalt ransfer of knowledge and discourse about the Nordic race. Id iscuss whether this undertaking can be considered at ransnationalm ovement in the rhetorical useso fN ordicness and what aims and effects werec onnected within the different strains. Is how that Germanyw as ac entref or research about the Nordic race, since Grant and Lundborgh ad extensive connections to German race scientists although no direct link between Grant and Lundborgt hemselvesc an be detected.

ScientificR acismi nt he United States
The idea of ah ierarchyofh uman races wasn ot invented by Grant or Stoddard. Charles Darwin argued in his evolutionary theory thatn or ace was superiort o the others. In the decades after the publication of his work, however,the French writer ArthurdeGobineau, the Americaneconomist William Ripley,and the British philosopher and biologist Herbert Spencer,among others, contributed to the idea that evolution was indeed the struggle between the races. This thinking grew into the ideologyo fs cientific racism.
Whereas Darwin argued against the supremacyofthe Northern racesand argued that environment had no effect on genes,d eG obineau argued thati n Northernp arts of Europe thered eveloped as uperiorr ace duet oi ts context of ah arsh climate.T hey suggested that civilisationw as ap roduct of race and that the Nordic race produced the highest form of civilisation. They also argued that race, not nation or political order,w as the foundation for social order.¹⁹ While the late nineteenth-century,r acialt heorists, such as William Ripley, had focused mainlyona nthropological issues in the context of race, racial theorists such as Madison Grant and Lothrop Stoddard introduceds ocial and political ideas into the discussion. In this way, they turned racial discourse away from anthropology and biologya nd towards social and political discourse.
Grant was born in 1865i nto aw ealthy, upper-classf amilyi nN ew York. He studied at Yale University as an undergraduatea nd receivedalawd egree from Columbia University in 1890.Yet,h is legal career was short-liveda sh ep ursued his interests in zoology, genealogy, and anthropology.²⁰ Grant developedaspe- cial interest in the conservation of American wildlife.H ew as membero ft he prestigious Boone and Crocket Club, ac onservation and hunting club with other prominent members, such as future president Theodore Roosevelt. He shaped various othernature-focused associations, like the National Parks Associationand the New York Zoological Society,and he was afounderofthe Bronx Zoo in New York in 1899.²¹ Furthermore, he was vice-president of the Immigration Restriction Leaguea nd membero ft he Eugenics Research Association. His ideas influenced the drafting of the Johnson Immigration Actof1924, which regulated immigration to the United Statesonracialgrounds.²² On top of this,Grant publishednumerous articles about wildlife conservation, nature, and anthropology, as well as the danger of the downfall of civilisation in Europe and its threat to society in the United States. He was astrongadvocate for eugenics and placed himself in the populardiscourse about degeneration and the decline of civilisation.²³ Grant created ag roup of followers duringh is active years. One of his most vocal protégées was the journalist and historian Lothrop Stoddard. In his biog-raphyofGrant,Jonathan Spiro calls Stoddard the second most influential racist of the United States.²⁴ Hisb ackground was similar to Grant's. Stoddard came from an old and wealthyN ew England family and he also trained, likeG rant, as al awyerb ut never actuallyp ractisedlaw.H estudied history at HarvardUniversitya nd worked as aj ournalist and an author.S toddard was considered the apostle of Grant,who was considered the prophet of scientificracism.²⁵ He published 22 books and numerous articles, the most significant of which were The Rising Tide of Color against White World-Supremacy (1920), TheR evolt against Civilisation (1922) and TheR acial Realities in Europe (1924).²⁶ The central theme,f ollowing Grant,was the supremacy of the Nordic race, its contribution to civilisation and its feared downfalli nt he near future. Stoddard was well known in intellectual circles and influenced the intellectuals and authors of his time. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald alluded to Stoddarda nd his works in his book TheG reat Gatsby (1925), whereh is character TomB uchanan refers to ab ook on the subject. "Civilization'sgoingt opieces," brokeout Tomviolently. "I've gotten to be at errible pessimist about things.Haveyou read TheRise of the Colored Empires by this man Goddard? […] It'safine book, and everybodyought to read it.The idea is if we don'tl ook out the white race will be -will be utterlys ubmerged. It'sa ll scientific stuff; it'sb een proved.
[…]T his fellow has worked out the whole thing. It'su pt ou s, whoa re the dominant race,t o watch out or these other racesw ill have control of things.
[ … ]T his idea is that we're Nordics.Iam, and youare,and youare,and […]we've produced all the things that go to make civilization -oh, sciencea nd art,a nd all that.D oy ou see?"²⁷ The casual allusion to Stoddard'sb ook and the topic of the presumed downfall of civilisation in ap opularn ovel show thats cientifici deas about race weren ot marginalised but that the discourse about races and civilisation was very much part of intellectual discussions. Books by Stoddardand others werewidelyr ead and became so well known that they appeared in literature as part of the zeitgeist.
However,the careers of both Grant and Stoddard were short lived, peaking in the time after the Great Warinthe 1920s. Yetboth left behind extensive material that enlightens us about the conceptualisation of the Nordic race in the United States in the interwar period. Grant'sb ook TheP assing of the Great Race (1916/ 1936) was dedicated to the history of the Nordic race and its achievements, but also prophesied its downfall in the next decades. In the prefacet ot he second edition, the US-anthropologist Henry Fairfield Osborn stated that recent history had shown that the Nordic race was the race that countries needed to relyonfor leadership.²⁸ In the prefacet ot he first edition Osborn stated: "if Iw erea sked: What is the greatest danger which threatens the American republic today? I would certainlyr eply: The gradual dyingout among our people of those hereditary traits through which the principles of our religious, political and social foundations werel aid down and their insidious replacement by traits of less noble character."²⁹ The stronginterest in the Nordic race and Nordic supremacy started shortlyb efore the Great Wara nd increased significantlyi nt he interwar period. The political and social changes that came with the experience of the war,n ot onlyi nt he United States but alsoi nG ermany, weres haped by as ense of loss of the world as it had been known and the subsequent uncertainty of the future.
Grant emphasised repeatedlyinhis works thatheobjected to the classification of some races as superior to others, but at the same time he contradicted his statement by declaring thatt he human races weren ot equal and alike.³⁰ In his books, he discussed the races of the world and especiallythe three races he defined as European races:the Nordic, the Alpine, and the Mediterranean. Here my focus is on the conceptualization of the Nordic race. Grant'sd escription of the physical characteristics of the Nordic race was no different to descriptions by other international racial theorists, such as Fischer,L enz, or Lundborg. The members of the Nordic race werel ong-skulled with fair skin, blond or brown hair,a nd light-coloured eyes. He described them as "ar ace of soldiers, sailors, adventurers and explorers,b ut abovea ll, of rulers, organizers and aristocrats in sharp contrast of the essentiallyp easant and democratic character of the Alpines. The Nordic race is domineering,individualistic, self-reliant and jealous of their personal freedom both in political and religious systems and as ar esult they are usuallyP rotestant."³¹ Grant argued thatthe superiority of the Nordic race was defined by its environment.Hedemarcated the corearea of the Nordic race as the areas surrounding the North and Baltic seas, though this area was not fixed but changed over time.³² He supported the neo-Malthusian notion that the environment influenced genes and that genes changed due to environmental circumstances over time and generations. Grant argued that the harsh living conditions of the Norththe long winters,the lack of daylight,a nd the bad weather -had ap ositive influenceo np eople of the Nordic race, even though the weather was endured rather thane njoyed.³³ The fair environment of Southern Europe wheret he Mediterraneanr ace was dominantd id not forcet he people to strive for survival. Grant statedt hatg ood weather made people mentally and physicallyw eak.³⁴ Grant created ac omplex network of the human race structure. On topw ere the threem ain species: the Caucasians, the Mongols, and the "Negroids".S econdly, he divided them into subspecies or races. The Caucasians, for example, wered ivided into Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean -the threeE uropean races.T hirdly, Grant introduced varieties.H ere, the Nordic race was split into Teutonics,S candinavians, and otherv arieties basedo nt he region they inhabited. The Teutonics,for example, werebased in Great Britainand Northern Germany,and the Scandinavians in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the coastal area of Finland.³⁵ Sweden was considered by Grant the corea rea of the Nordic race, wheret he purest typesc ould be found. In GermanyorG reat Britain, the Nordic race mixed with other racesb ut the high percentageo fN ordic blood within the people ensured their highq uality.³⁶ Stoddarde choed in manyw ayst he thoughts of his mentor Grant and contributed little new to racial theories of the earlyt wentieth century.H ea lsod ivided European races into Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean. He located the areas of settlement the samew ay Grant did and followed Grant and most other racial theorists of his time in the physical description of the Nordic race.³⁷ Stoddarda rgued that the terms Aryan, Indo-European, and Germanic weret ob ec onsidered purelyl inguistic. Only Nordic could be considered a term thatd efined the racialu niqueness and superiority of the group of people living in NorthernE urope and belongingt ot he Nordic race, accordingt oS toddard.³⁸ HereR ipley'st erminologyo ft he Teutonic race clearly shifts to Grant and Stoddard'sN ordic race.
The term Caucasian,accordingtoGrant,was used to distinguish White from Black people in the United States but could not be used in other contexts.³⁹ Teutonic,asGrant claimed, was also alinguistic term that distinguished the latecomers of the Nordic race from the earlyC eltic-speaking Nordic tribes.⁴⁰ Grant and Stoddarda greed that all othert erms previouslyu sed to describe the Nordic race, such as Aryan, Germanic, or Teutonic,a ctuallyr eferred to linguistic differences but not to raciald ifferences -physical and mental traits. Grant stated: Just as the classification of man according to race needs revision in the light of recent discoveries,s othe definition of race must be understood anew in the light of genetics.Thirty years ago, we talkedgliblyabout the Aryan or Indo-European race,orthe Caucasian or Germanic race.A ll these terms must be discarded. Aryan, Indo-European, and Germanic are onlyl inguistic terms and Caucasian has no meaninge xcept as used in America to distinguish between whites and colored. ⁴¹ Yet, Stoddard started to use the term "White race," which comprised the Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean races.Grant was not convinced at this time that these three races could be grouped togetherb ut Stoddardc onsidered them all to be races of "good" stock and geneticallya tl east abovet he "colored races" [sic]. Nevertheless,Stoddardagreed with Grant that the Nordic race was the most val- The Nordici nt he Scientific RacialD iscourses uable one.⁴² While people from the Nordic countries had not previouslyb een considered White, Stoddardc onnected Nordicness to Whiteness.⁴³ The fear for the future of the Nordic race was ac entral theme for Stoddard. Whereas Grant had alreadya nticipated ag rim futuref or the Nordic race,S toddard argued that "it is the Nordics who are most affected by the dysgenic [sic] aspectsofour civilization."⁴⁴ He gave two examples of the decline of the Nordic race. With the first he directed the view to the United States.S toddarda rgued that "our country,o riginallys ettled almost exclusively by Nordics,was toward the close of the nineteenth centuryi nvaded by hordes of immigrant Alpines and Mediterraneans, not to mention Asiatic elements like Levantines and Jews."⁴⁵ Stoddardr efers to "Nordics" here because in his mind the first settlers in America came exclusively from countries with ahighconcentration of the Nordic bloodline,s uch as Great Britain, parts of Germany, and Sweden. He continued: "as ar esult, the Nordic nativeA mericanhas been crowded out with amazing rapidity by these swarming, prolific aliens, and after two short generations he has in manyo fo ur urban areas become almoste xtinct."⁴⁶ He drew ad irect line between rising social and economic problems in the United Statesa fter the turn of the century and the geographical changei nt he migration structures he appeared to have recognized.
AccordingtoStoddard, following Grant'sargument,the Nordic race was endangered not onlyi nt he United States but also in Europe, its areao fo rigin. He claimed that it was mainlyt he Nordic race that had suffered duringt he Great War: "the Nordic went forth eagerlyt ob attle, while the more stolid Alpine and, abovea ll, the little brunet Mediterranean either stayeda th ome or even when at the front showed less fighting spirit,t ook fewer chances,a nd oftener savedt heir skins."⁴⁷ The Great Wart hus weakened White solidarity,w hich have previouslyb eenaunifying force.⁴⁸ Stoddard'sl ine of logic wast hati n the Great Wart he White races fought each other and other racesw erel ess involved, which meant thatm ainlym embers of the White races,i np articular the Nordic race, lost their livesinthe war.According to him this affected not only the current generation but also the future ones.⁴⁹ Grant and Stoddard'ss cientific racism was basedo nt heir experiences of changei nA merican culture after the turn of the century and the Great War. They perceivedad egeneration of the society and as ar esultf elt that the world they knew was changing. Their concerns about an increase in lowquality immigrants -as they perceivedt hem -triggered their interest in race mixtures and trying to preservet he statusq uo.
Grant and Stoddard, as wealthy, educated men of theirt ime with as trong belief in science,used scientific argumentationt os upport non-scientific claims regardinghierarchies of human racesasdeterminateofhistorical developments. It is significant how much influencea mateur scientists like Grant and Stoddard could gain in politics and the scientific community.They wereevenabletoinfluence legislation, for instance, the development of the Johnson Acti n1 924. The Nordic race and being Nordic became am ain identity marker for these men. They used it to proclaim their superior position in society and ensure the preservation of their power in the United States.

NordiskR as in Sweden RacialT heory
Enthusiasts for the Nordic race and racialscientists spanned across the Western world, creating an informal network.⁵⁰ In the earlytwentieth century,the Nordic race concept was popular in most Western countries.I tw as frequentlyu sed to define hierarchies of people, especiallyt om ake distinctions between native inhabitants of anation and immigrants. The discourse, however,was not the same on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States,aswehaveseen in the previous section, the focus was to protect the nation from immigrantsa rriving from Europe, in particular Southern Europe, and changingt he societal and racial map of the United States.I nE urope the discussion was different.T he decline of the population quality and the fear of racial degeneration constituted the coreo ft he discourse, but in Sweden, it was not immigration but emigration The Nordic in the Scientific Racial Discourses that was the main concern.⁵¹ In the interwar period in Sweden, racialbiologists raised concerns thatp eople of as o-called "high-quality" racialm ake-up would emigrate,a nd thats o-called "degenerate" people would stayb ehind.⁵² Racial research in Sweden was less directed towarde xternal influencea nd instead was concerned with the internal race structure of the Swedish nation. The Swedish racial biologist and leader of the state institutef or racial biology Herman Lundborg publisheds everal booksa nalysingt he racial characters of the Swedish nation.⁵³ In his more general publications on at heory of race, such as Rasfrågor imodern belysning (1919) and Rasbiologi och rashygien: Nutida kultur-och rasfrågor ietiskbelysning (1922),his focus wasprimarilyonNorthern Europe and he did not take the global approach as Grant and Stoddardd id.⁵⁴ However,l ike his US colleagues, Lundborga rgued that nations consist of race mixtures.F or example, the German nation had traces of the nordiskr as but also others. The nordiskr as,a ccordingt oL undborg, could be found in most races,b ut in al ower quantity.⁵⁵ Lundborga lso highlighted the differenceb etween the terms race and folk, which had an influenceo nt he use of the word Nordic in his work. He argued thatafolk was agroup of people joined by culture and race constituted agroup of people with shared physical and mental characteristics that wereinherited.⁵⁶ Forexample, the German folk included the Nordic race as well as other racesa nd the Nordic race could also be found among Roman or Slavic folk.⁵⁷ He argued thate very folk was actuallyamixture of races and never exclusively consisted of one race, but the quantity of nordisk traces in a folk defined its quality.⁵⁸ The term nordisk did not itself have aracist connotation in Lundborg'sracial theory;itwas adescriptive term, which did not saymuch about the quality of the race or createstrict hierarchies between races, as in US or German racialr esearch. He was much vaguer in his publications, though more precise about his racist ideas in private.⁵⁹ Since he published his research in German, Swedish, and English, it cannot be clearlys tated how the term nordisk might differ from Nordic and nordisch in regard to his American and German colleagues. However,i tc an be stated that Lundborgu sed nordisk not as ac ulturalo rp olitical term, like Grant did, but as ab iological one.
In the context of neo-Malthusian ideas of genetic heritage, Lundborg argued that although the environment influenced physical development -such as body size -not all differences in physical appearances could be related to the environment,asmanyw ereattributable to racialdifferences.⁶⁰ In manyw aysL undborg shared Grant'si deas on the influenceo ft he environment on the racialconstitution but he indicatedacertain conceptual uncertainty about how the environment exactlyi nfluenced the development of genes. Thism ay have been due to his scientific education as ab iologist,which gave him ad eeper understanding of genetics. Since Lundborgw as ab iologist focusing on Sweden, his research on the nordiskr as was stronglyi nfluenced by his academic background and by his own studies of the races in Sweden that he mapped extensively in the earlyt wentieth century.D irect contact between Grant and Lundborgh as not been found. Lundborg'sm ain contacts in the United States werew ith more established and professional racial scientists, such as Charles Davenport, the leader of the Cold SpringH arbor Eugenics RecordO ffice, and not with amateur scientists like Grant.
Though Lundborg did not have ad irect connection with Grant,h eh ad very direct connections with Grant'sG erman colleagues Lenz, Baur,a nd Fischer as well as racialt heorist Hans F. K. Günther who playedaleading role in National Socialist racialt heory.⁶¹ Günther livedi nS weden in the 1920sa nd lectured at Lundborg'si nstitute.⁶² TheS wedish Racial BiologyI nstitutew as modelled after the German Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.⁶³ Lundborgi sd escribed as ar adical conservatist who helpedi ntroduce Germanr acialt heory to Sweden.⁶⁴ Although his research was influenced by the idea in radical German racial theory that the Nordic race sits at the topofaracial hierarchy, it was alsoinfluenced by theories from scholars in the Nordic region. In thatsense, nordisk had adouble meaning in race science in Sweden. It constituted the research subjectbut also the context in which the research took place. Nordic scholars cooperated in their effortsi n  Björkman, Den anfrätta stammen;B jörkman and Widmalm, "SellingE ugenics."  Lundborg, Rassenkunde des schwedischen Volkes,1.  Björkman, Den anfrätta stammen;H agerman, Käraste Herman.  Björkman and Widmalm, "SellingE ugenics."  Björkman and Widmalm, "SellingE ugenics."  Björkman and Widmalm, "SellingE ugenics." The Nordici nt he Scientific RacialD iscourses racialr esearch and shared their ideas in meetingsa nd conferences within a closed network.⁶⁵

Grant and Stoddard'sC onnectionst oG ermany
Grant did have extensive and direct contacts to German racial theorists, especially to EugenF ischer,t he Germanm edical doctor,a nthropologist,a nd racialh ygienist,w ho studied race mixtures in the Germanc olonies in Africa. In 1937, Fischer wrotet he foreword to the German translation of Conquest of the Continent.⁶⁶ The arguments of Fischer,B aur, and Lenz harmonised with those of Grant.They praised the physical, mental,and social superiority of the nordische Rasse,w hich according to them made representativeso ft he nordische Rasse leaders of civilisation and the world. Fischer,Baur, and Lenz were not as conceptuallyc lear with their terms as Grant and Stoddard but used both germanisch and nordisch. Lenz argued that "die Germanenreiche, welche ausder sogenannten Völkerwanderung hervorgingen, wurden gegründet vonS tämmen nordischer Rasse. Das deutsche Kaiserreich des Mittelalters ruhte ganz und gar aufd en Schultern vonGermanen."⁶⁷ The interchangeable use of germanisch and nordisch could be because Germanyw as not part of the corea rea of the Nordic race, which was mostlyl ocated in Sweden. However,t he German racial scientists wanted to ensuret hat Germans could be considered Nordic,s ot hey expanded the historical corea reao ft he Nordic race to the GermanicR eich of the Middle Ages and claimed germanisch as ap rehistoric termf or nordisch. Similarly to Grant and Stoddard, Lenz surveyed European history proclaimingany major historical event,such as the Reformation or the Renaissance, to be an achievement made through the contribution of the members of the nordische Rasse.⁶⁸ He also agreed with Grant and Stoddard that Aryan was not at erm to describe the nordische Rasse but had to be considered alinguistic term. He concluded that it was not an exaggeration to state that the countries of north-western Europe had the most developedcivilisation due to the high concentration of the nordische Rasse, since the nordische Rasse was the most intelligent race.⁶⁹  Björkman and Widmalm, "SellingE ugenics."  Spiro, Defendingt he Master Race,3 59.  Fritz Lenz, "Die seelischen Unterschiede der großen Rassen," in Menschliche Erblichkeit-slehreUnd Rassenhygiene,ed. Erwin Baur,Eugen Fischer,and Fritz Lenz (Munich: J.F. Lehmann, 1931), 541.  Lenz, "Die seelischen Unterschiede der großen Rassen," 542.  Lenz, "Die seelischen Unterschiede der großen Rassen," 542.
In Germany, Grant'ssecond importantcontact was the philologist and racial theorist Hans F. K. Günther,who was aN ordic enthusiast and am ember of the Nordische Bewegung.T his was an etworko fG erman race and 'folkish' (völkische)⁷⁰ enthusiasts that included several general organisations such as Nordischer Ring and völkische youth organizations such as Jungnordischer Bund or Artamanen.⁷¹ Later,Günther was the leading Nordic expert of the National Socialists and aclose friend of Adolf Hitler.Hecited Grant frequentlyinhis publications.⁷² Herman Lundborgw as also in touchw ith Günther,w ho visited Uppsala and Lundborg'sr acial institute in 1923.⁷³ Grant'si deas werem et with great enthusiasm in Germanyf rom the time of the WeimarR epublic onwards. TheP assing of the Great Race was translated by the Austrian professor Rudolf Pollardw ith the title Der Untergang der großen Rasse (1929), who concluded that the book should be aw arning to the German people. Stoddard,too, did not shya wayf rom being in contact with the German National Socialists and even visited Germanyi n1 940.⁷⁴ Germanyw as am eetingp oint for racial scientists. In the Weimar Republic and especiallyl ater under the National Socialists,G ermanyb ecame central for people interested in the Nordic race and concerned with its condition.The overlap between the ideas of Grant and Stoddarda nd thoseo ft heir colleagues in NorthernEurope wassignificant.I tmight not be toof ar-fetched even to suggest ag lobal interest in the Nordic race with certain differences occurringb etween networks of scholars. The intellectual intersections between Grant and Stoddard and their German colleagues were, however,f ar mored irect.F ischer,L enz, and Baur made, in many ways,the same claims as Grant and Stoddard about Nordic intellectual superiority.I tc an be assumed they werem ore influenced by Grant and Stoddardthan the other wayaround, because Grant'sbooks werepublished in Germanyinthe 1920s. Nevertheless, Fischer,Lenz, and Baur werenot as conceptuallyclear as Grant and Stoddard. They used nordisch and germanisch as interchangeable terms,onthe basis that Germanen had originated in the nordische  Völkisch, was often used by racial theorists and within racist movements,especiallyNational Socialism, to define their own racial superiority. Rasse.⁷⁵ Fort hem, the term Germanen referred to ap opulation thatw as part of the nordische Rasse in the Middle Ages. They all agreed however that Aryan was onlyalinguistic term and thatt he Aryan race had died out av ery long time ago. Conversely, Stoddard and Grant especially, argued that Nordic was the correct termr ather than the obsolete term Germanic.

Transnational Movement of Nordic Enthusiasts?
Following on from the previous section, aquestion arises whether rising interest in the Nordic race as akey feature to conceptualising civilisationand superiority in the United States and NorthernE urope can be considered at ransnational movement.B efore this question is answered two points need to be discussed: firstly, whyt he term "Nordic" [nordisch/nordisk]b ecame so populari ns cientific discourse; and secondly, how it could later enter social and political discourse and influencelegislation like the Johnson Actinthe United States or the German race laws in 1933.
In the context of the United States,M atthew Guterl argues thataN ordic movement was used after the Great Wartotry to solve manypolitical problems.⁷⁶ He argues that aNordic vogueswept over Americanpopularcultureinthe 1920s, particularlyi nN ew York.⁷⁷ Leading authorso ft he time like Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, and, as alreadycited, F. ScottFitzgerald, showed interest in Nordic subjects and referred to them in their work.⁷⁸ The Nordic voguealsostrongly influenced the political sphere. Visual differencesb etween so-called races became more important than before. Whereas in the nineteenth century Irish immigrants were unwanted, now they were able to climb the race ladder due to their Whiteness,while immigrantsw ith darker skin from Southern Europe and Black Americans, with their rising liberation movement,b ecame targets of racism.⁷⁹ Whiteness,t ogetherw ith Nordicness, became al eadingf orcew ithin politics and the two weres trongly interconnected. The framing of the Nordic race and Nordic supremacyl ed to ar edefinition of Whiteness.
Although the general interest in the Nordic race and Nordicness was rooted in the ideas of Grantian eugenics, in the interwarp eriod, accordingt oG uterl, it turned into racial fear.⁸⁰ This was then connected to ideas regarding the social worth of individuals, with attendant cultural, social, and political implications. Being Nordic meantb eing White and Whiteness became an integralp art of Americanp opularc ulture. Class formation and race consciousness worked hand in hand.⁸¹ This connotation was rooted particularlyinthe Anglo-American scientificr ace discourse and from theree ntered the social debates of the early twentieth century -previously, onlyi mmigrantsf rom Germanya nd England werec onsidered to be White in the United States.⁸² People with fairer skin began to be perceiveda sv aluable members of Americans ociety,b ecause -according to scientificand political theories of the time -their skin colour guaranteed that they possessed the characteristics of the Nordic race, such as intelligence, bravery,a nd morality.⁸³ Whiteness and Nordicness wereb rought together as conceptsbyracialtheorists and biologists to describethe most desirable people of the Americann ation. Before this connection was made,p eople from Nordic countries weren ot labelled as White.⁸⁴ In Germany,asimilar strong turn -what could be called am ovement -to Nordicness can be observed. In the earlyt wentieth century,s everal clubs and committees weref ounded in Germany, for the purpose of advancingt he Nordic idea, for example Nordischer Ring/ Deutscher Widerbund,B ogenclub or the Deutscher Bund für Volksaufartung und Erbkunde. These clubs werenon-professional and non-scientific but interacted with the community of racial theorists, some of whom, such as Fritz Lenz or EugenF ischer,weree venm embers.⁸⁵ The greatest differenceb etween the German and the US Nordic movements was, however,t heir respective eras.The prime erao fN ordicness in the United States was in the 1920s, peaking in 1924 with the Johnson Immigration Act. After 1930,i nterest in the Nordic race and Nordic superiority decreased again. This did not mean thatr acials egregation was no longer as alient issue, but the focus on Nordicness in the discourse declineda nd Whiteness became a  Guterl, The Color of Race in America, 1900-1940,41.  Guterl, The Color of Race in America, 1900-1940. The Nordici nt he Scientific RacialD iscourses more crucial category.F urthermore, Grant and Stoddard'sprominence decreased dramaticallyi nt he 1930s. Grant started to focus more on his work on animals, and for the New York Zoo, before his death in 1937.⁸⁶ Stoddard'sp resencei n New York society also declined at the same time. Thism ight be related to the rise of fascismi nE urope and their claim to the Nordic concept,which was not compatible with US democracy.H owever,a st he Nordic movement endedi n the United States it was onlyb eginning in Germany. With the rise to power of the National Socialists in 1933,G ermany'sg overnment and political elite were heavilyi nvested in the concept of the superiority of the nordische Rasse. In 1933,t he Nordic club Nordische Gesellschaft was put under National Socialist leadership.I nt his way, it was transformed from an independent and open club to an instrument of the right-wingp arty.T he club had ad ouble task: to lead the propaganda on the nordische Idee in Germanyand to establish and nurture close relationships to other Nordic groups.⁸⁷ The leading Nordic enthusiasts of the 1920sb ecame central figures in National Socialist politics. From 1927 until 1942, EugenF ischer was the leader of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Anthropologie, menschlichenErblehre und Eugenik, which was the state institute for eugenics and racial theory duringt he Weimar Republic and later.⁸⁸ As rector of the university in Berlin between 1933 and 1934,hefacilitated the dismissal of many of the Jewishstaff members, though he onlyb ecame am ember of the National Socialist Party in 1940.F rom1 933o nwards,h is colleagueF ritz Lenz led the eugenics department of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute.F ischer was an expert adviser for the development of the Gesetz fürd ie Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses (1933), and he became am embero f the NSDAP in 1937.
In Sweden, the connections between the Nordic idea and racial politics were not as clear.Herman Lundborg retired as leader of the institute for racialbiology in 1935.T he physician and racial biologist Gunnar Dahlberg became the next leader.In1934, Sweden implemented legislation thatallowed the voluntary sterilization of so-called unfavourable individuals.⁸⁹ Thougha tf irst glancet he sterilization lawi nS weden might have shown similarities with the German laws of 1933 and 1935,the Swedish lawd id not have an explicit racial background.⁹⁰ It was not based on notions of race as such, especiallynot on aconceptualization of Nordic supremacy, but it was structurallyinfused with class, genderand racial bias as part of the population question in the establishment of the welfare state.⁹¹ However,r acialr epercussions cannot be denied, for example in context of the Sámi people or Travellers.⁹² Enthusiasm for the Nordic race did not take off in its corec ountry in the same wayi td id in Germanya nd the United States. The reasons for this were manifold. From the 1930s onwards, Sweden had arather stable social democratic government,which steadily modernised the country.The standard of living of the Swedish people increased, and welfare wasd istributed more equally. Sweden did not see the samepolitical and social issues thatwererising in Germany and the United States. Furthermore, the Social Democrats began using the term Nordic,r esulting in the term being associated with the liberal left.I ts political meaning changed with increased usageo ft erms such as "Nordic democracy" and the "Nordic welfares tate."⁹³ In this wayi tw as not exclusively discussed in racial terms anymore, which made it difficult for right-wingg roups and fascists to take over the term, as happened in Germany, for example.
To sum up, Nordicness and Nordic enthusiasm spread in several countries in the 1920sa nd 1930s, but the resultsw erev ery different and very much influenced by the political and social environment.I nc ountries like Germany, that had ar ight-wing government,i tw ould gain social and political ground in the 1930s. Moremoderate countries like Sweden did not experience apolitical movement of Nordicness but rather avital interest.E nthusiasm for Nordicness in the United States was short but intense and far-reachingb ecause the idea was able to gain ground in politics and influencel aw-making.D espite the Nordic enthusiasts sharing their ideas across borders,itmight be an overstatement to suggest it wasatransnationalmovement.Inthe context of the term "Nordic race," however,o ne can trace the emergence of at rend towardsd egeneration, extremism, and racism that originatedi nt he United States and then spread to Europe.

Conclusion
As prominent and important as they wereduringtheirlifetimes, it is remarkable how the legacies of Madison Grant and Lothrop Stoddard, in racial science as The Nordici nt he Scientific RacialD iscourses well as politics, are forgottent oday. Both developed ideas about scientificr acism, hierarchies of races,a nd especially, the supremacyo ft he Nordic race. These ideas weretransformed from scientific constructs to political instruments. Grant and Stoddardc ontributed significantlyt othe development of the concept of aNordic race and its global distribution in the earlytwentieth century. Neither man was ascientist himself, but both wereinfluential society people who built a bridge between science and society.They popularised the idea that the appearance of people as well as their mental characteristics wereb ased on their race. Most of the ideas Grant and Stoddardp roclaimed weren ot new as such, but Grant especiallyshaped the term "Nordic race." This termwas later used and developedw ithin the global trend towards Whiteness and racials egregation. The invisibilityo fG rant and Stoddard'sN ordic race discourse in the United States can mostlyb ee xplained by the irrevocablyc hanged political sphere following the events of the Second World War. The discourse never gainedl arge-scale political ground after the Second World War, however it prevails among far-right and fascistmovements who romanticise the Third Reich and continue to discuss the Nordic race in the context of White supremacy.
As Ih aves hown, ideas about the superiority of the Nordic race wered iscussed in several Western countries and across nations.⁹⁴ In the end, it is difficult to estimate who influenced whom because manyp ublications werew ritten and published at the same time. They contain the samei deas and descriptions regardingr acial hierarchies and the composition of individual races. However, two conclusions can be made. Firstly, that "Nordic" [nordisch/nordisk]w as a key term of earlyt wentieth centuryr acial theory and science.S econdly, its spread did not originatei nt he Nordic countries,b ut was first made popular in the United States and then spread to Europe.
None of the race theorists seemed to doubtthat the Nordic race was the most superior race of all and the guarantee for civilisation and progress.Usually, they counted themselvesasmembers of this race and their negative view of the future of the Nordic race might be linked to an expectation of agrim future of their own position in society.The modernisation of societies, and the rise of new democratic ideals as well as communism and fascismi nthe 1920sa nd 1930s, challenged the world as they knew it.G rant considered democracy to be an instrument of the weak and did not agree that everyone should have the same voice in society. ForG rant,d emocracy was the end of civilisation.⁹⁵  Björkman and Widmalm, "SellingE ugenics."  Grant, TheP assing of the Great Race or the Racial Basis of European History,x x, 5 -8, 227-30.
The passingofgreatness also seemed to be at the coreofracial theory in the other countries discussed here. Germany feared the disintegration of its nation after theirl oss in the First World War. The focus on the nordische Rasse was one of the methods of the racial scientists of the Weimar Republic and gotpicked up in the 1930s by the National Socialists.R acial hierarchyb ecame the method to provethe greatness of the German nation and bring it back to the centre of the world stage. This resulted in the long-term bastardisation of the term nordisch in Germany. The connotations of racialsupremacy and National Socialism created a problematic connection that put nordisch foreverinthe corner of right-wingpolitics and fascism. When talking about the Nordic countries,S candinavia is the term most used in Germany today. The term Nordische Länder is basicallyu nknown and rarelyu sed. Nordisch has been replaced with skandinavisch and has connotations connected to the Nordic welfares tate and Nordic lifestyle.
Racial scientists argued that Sweden likewise sawt he passingofg reatness, as parts of its population vanished through emigration. As small country at the periphery, Sweden always had to fight for its significancei nt he world. To be at the coreofthe Nordic discourse and be identified as the corearea settled by the Nordic race gave it significance. Additionally, the notion of Sweden as acountry in between the political extremes of the time might have proven the point for racial theorists about the great virtue of the members of the Nordic race. However, as discussed, Nordic enthusiasts did not gain support in Sweden in the same wayt hey did in Germanya nd the United States.Y et that does not meant hat in Sweden the term nordisk remains free of racist connotations. On the one hand, nordisk was useda sp olitical term to describe institutions of the region like the Nordic Council, Nordic cultural institutions like Nordiskamuseet,orpolitical conceptss uch as the Nordic welfares tate. On the other hand, there is todaya no ngoing battle with right-winga nd fascist organizations,s uch as Nordiska motståndsrörelsen, who try to reclaim the term nordisk for racist and White supremacist ideas.
To conclude, the concept of aN ordic race was an international concept based on ag lorification of the past and the fear of the future. It was founded on the idea that people identify themselvesa ccordingt op hysical appearance and skin colour and that human races can be divided into race hierarchies. The ideas about the Nordic race combined science and politics and brought racial ideas to the forefront of Western societies. Itssignificance was stronglyshaped by national and political circumstances that defined the grounds on which ideas of Nordic supremacy could grow and on which today'se xtremist movements for White supremacy, like the Nordic resistancem ovement,s till rest.
The Nordic in the Scientific Racial Discourses