The Application of Pseudoscientific Racism

Abstract

It was remarked in the general introduction that racism was all-pervasive, but led to no particular set of policy decisions or recommendations. Rather, it was a way of looking at the determinants of human action and human history. As such, it could have a powerful influence, but the direction of that influence might be strongly modified by other attitudes. The selections that follow are four illustrations of the way racist doctrines could be used in the hands of imperialist writers, and three of these four writers were men who actually helped to run empires—not merely those who urged them on from the sidelines.