One of those who feared that the large influx of South and East
Europeans would undermine the quality of American life was
Madison Grant. In his book The Passing of the Great Race, he
warned that Nordic excellence would be swamped by the
faster-spawning Catholic immigrants. Originally these racial
stereotypes had some cultural and historical basis, but they were
gaining a new strength and authority from the sociological and
biological sciences centering in the concepts of Social
Darwinisn.
Darwinism and related theories in anthropology and sociology
helped to give an aura of respectability to racism in both Europe
and America. The same kind of pseudo-scientific thinking which
was developed in Europe to justify anti-Semitism was used in
America to reinforce prejudices against Negroes as well as
against Jews and South Europeans. In the first half of the
nineteenth century the American anthropologist Samuel George
Morton argued that each race had its own unique characteristics.
Racial character, he believed, was the result of inheritance
rather than of environment.
Pages:
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187