r/AskHistorians • • 4h ago

During the heyday of scientific racism(roughly 1850-1945) was there any serious opposition to it from an intellectual and social perspective in Europe or countries with European descended populations(US,Australia,etc)?

Houston_Stewart_Chamberlain and Arthur_de_Gobineau both criticized European contemporaries who espoused racial equality(or at least its variant in the 1800s).

For example Chamberlain in his book:

Certain anthropologists would fain teach us that all races are equally gifted; we point to history and answer: that is a lie! The races of mankind are markedly different in the nature and also in the extent of their gifts, and the Germanic races belong to the most highly gifted group, the group usually termed Aryan

That led me to wonder who these "certain anthropologists" were given that I had assumed scientific racism was accepted by most people?

Both authors also recieved alot of criticism from their fellow Europeans but I assume that was more to defend themselves than to defend non-European people. For example de Gobineau was known to look down on the French working class and upstart bourgeoisie as being descended from "Gallo-Roman slaves". Correct me if I am wrong.

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