Outcasts from Evolution

Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority, 1859- 1900

Bibliographic Data

ID10242015
AuthorsDale A Somers (corresponding author), John S Haller (0009-0000-6694-6200)
Year1972
Volume38
Issue2
Pages318
Publication date1972-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Southern History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4642 • E-ISSN: 2325-6893
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2206464
OpenAlexW2021793927
LanguageEN
Citations received46

In the only book to date to explore the period between the 1859 publication of Darwin s Origin of Species the discovery in 1900 of Gregor Mendel s experiments in genetics, John S. Haller, Jr., shows the relationship between scientific conviction and public policy. He focuses on the numerous liberally educated American scientists who were caught up in the triumph of evolutionary ideas and who sought to apply those ideas to comparative morality, health, and the physiognomy of nonwhite races.During this period, the natural and social scientists of the day not only accepted without question the genetic and cultural superiority of the Caucasian; they also asserted that the Caucasian race held a monopoly on evolutionary progress, arguing that inferior were no more than evolutionary survivors doomed by their genetic legacy to remain outcasts from evolution.Hereditarians and evolutionists believed that less fit human races were perishing from the rigors of civilization s struggle and competition. Indeed, racial inferiority lay at the very foundation of the evolutionary framework and, remaining there, rose to the pinnacle of truth with the myth of scientific certainty

Sociology · Evolution and Science Education · History · History of Science and Medicine · Race, Genetics, and Society

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