The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea

Robert Wald Sussman

Published by Harvard University Press 2014

The Myth of Race

The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea

Robert Wald Sussman

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674736160

Overview
Contents

About this book

Although eugenics is now widely discredited, some groups and individuals claim a new scientific basis for old racist assumptions. Pondering the continuing influence of racist research and thought, despite all evidence to the contrary, Robert Sussman explains why—when it comes to race—too many people still mistake bigotry for science.

Author / Editor information

Sussman Robert Wald :

Robert Wald Sussman is Professor of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Reviews

Not only is this book a significant contribution to the view of race and racism in traditional ‘four-field’ anthropology in the U.S., but it is also important to the understanding of global notions of contemporary racism…The Myth of Race encourages us to understand where stereotypes and misinformation fit in our consideration of whether and how notions of biological race remain pervasive in today’s discourse and policy.
-- Yolanda T. Moses Times Higher Education

Explores how the faulty concept of race embedded in our culture affects where we live, go to school and work. It influences our choice in friends and our treatment in the healthcare and justice systems.
-- Jeff Adachi San Francisco Examiner

Sussman does a masterful job of tracing racist thought in western Europe and the U.S. from 15th-century polygenics through the eugenics of the 20th century to the continued racism and anti-immigration stances of today’s radical Right…Although the racists at whom Sussman directs his message are unlikely to read it or to credit it if they do, this book should be in every library, from high school through public to university, in hopes that it will affect some minds before they become completely shuttered by prejudice.
-- L. L. Johnson Choice

The idea of race, writes the author, is a cultural rather than biological reality. Tribes always believed that strangers were subhuman, but they could overcome their inferiority by joining the tribe—e.g., converting to Christianity or adopting Roman citizenship… Today, since racism is politically incorrect, Sussman maintains, supporters have migrated en masse to the anti-immigration movement… Sussman delivers a lucidly written, eye-opening account of a nasty sociological battle that the good guys have been winning for a century without eliminating a very persistent enemy.
-- Kirkus Reviews

Sussman, an anthropology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, explores and explodes the concept of race. He contends that, in the face of a longstanding scientific consensus that race possesses no biological basis, many people still mistakenly believe that traits like aggression, intelligence, and generosity can be traced to it. Noting that racial distinctions between humans have no biological basis is not new, Sussman makes his contribution by exposing the ways that academic ‘science’ is invoked to authorize an outmoded concept. He traces the history of ideas about race, moving briskly from the Spanish Inquisition to Linnaeus and Kant, and offering a detailed discussion of eugenics. Lest readers imagine this is all in the distant past, Sussman devotes his last three chapters to the funding mechanisms that keep racist research alive today. He shows that ‘science’ has been used in efforts to overturn civil rights legislation, and he examines the ways racist discourse has become intertwined with immigration policy. This book, which is both provocative and commonsensical, will be useful to scholars, but may also spark a broader conversation.
-- Publishers Weekly

Robert Sussman’s penetrating study of the major figures who constructed concepts of race lays bare the personal biases, enmity, and corruption that influenced the intellectuals and politicians who framed modern industrialized societies. It also reveals unexpected heroes whose clear-minded insights into human diversity presaged our modern understanding. The Myth of Race is a suspense-filled and richly scholarly tour de force.
-- Nina G. Jablonski, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University

What is most remarkable is how Sussman manages to tie in past attitudes toward race with ongoing political developments. He demonstrates a seamless continuity of current attitudes with past ones in a way I have not seen attempted elsewhere, and in my view he succeeds brilliantly: the final chapters, in particular, make chilling reading. This is a book written straight from the heart, and it reads that way.
-- Ian Tattersall, author of Race? Debunking a Scientific Myth

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	viii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Early Racism in Western Europe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. The Birth of Eugenics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
3. The Merging of Polygenics and Eugenics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
4. Eugenics and the Nazis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
5. The Antidote: Boas and the Anthropological Concept of Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
6. Physical Anthropology in the Early Twentieth Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
7. The Downfall of Eugenics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
8. The Beginnings of Modern Scientific Racism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
9. The Pioneer Fund, 1970s–1990s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
10. The Pioneer Fund in the Twenty- First Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
11. Modern Racism and Anti- Immigration Policies Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	302
Appendix A: The Eugenics Movement, 1890s– 1940s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Appendix B: The Pioneer Fund Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	351
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 346
Illustrations
- Other: 4 halftones, 2 line illustrations

eBook

Published: October 6, 2014
ISBN: 9780674736160