The Inequality of Human Races |
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User Review - alexperlloni - LibraryThingMaybe important to understand historical misconceptions about human races. Although Gobineau is not the father of Nazi Germany's ideas of aryan superiority he has been recognized as one of the fathers of modern racism. Read full review
Arthur de Gobineau's "The Inequality of Human Races" gave articulation to a human, eurocentric belief of the 19th century that obviously galvanized a segment of Europe's population, to later be realized in its epitome by the Nazi's and their slaughter of the Jews, the Romani and even the Poles. It is by early 21st century standards considered dangerous and certainly (at a minimum) politically incorrect. The fact that this book influenced so many people, including the opera composer Richard Wagner, and motivated them to heinious acts is still a contemporary threat to world thought. However, as a finished product, it also demonstrates that humans are very much part of the Animal Kingdom that so many people think they are distinct from. There may be degrees of separation but not with wide enough of a purview that we are an entity onto ourselves. Arthur de Gobineau's verbal elucidation, aside from being based on misconstructed logic and perspective, is more useful as a cognitive example of how human analyis is not based on observation or logic but an material artifact of human expression of a particular individual's psycho-physiological makeup.