William Frédéric Edwards and the study of human races in France, from the Restoration to the July Monarchy

Bibliographic Data

ID4392891
AuthorsIan B Stewart (0000-0002-1133-7421, Queen Mary University of London, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume58
Issue3
Pages275-300
Publication date2020-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0073-2753 • E-ISSN: 1753-8564
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0073275319889832
PMID31872785
OpenAlexW2997422632
LanguageEN
Citations received2

Scholars of the nineteenth-century race sciences have tended to identify the period from c.1820- c.1850 as a phase of transition from philologically to physically focused study. In France, the physiologist William Frédéric Edwards (1776-1842) is normally placed near the center of this transformation. A reconsideration of Edwards' oeuvre in the context of his larger biography shows that it is impossible to see a clear-cut philological to physical "paradigm shift." Although he has been remembered almost solely for his principle of the permanency of physical "types," Edwards was also committed to what he recognized as the new science of " linguistique" and proposed a new branch of comparative philology based on pronunciation. Bearing Edwards' attention to linguistics in mind, this article reconstructs his racial theories in their intellectual contexts and suggests that at a time of emergent disciplinary specialization, Edwards tried to hold discrete fields together and mold them into a new "natural history of man

Ancient history · Art · Art history · Biography · Comparative history · Comparative linguistics · Context (archaeology) · Discipline · Epistemology · History of science · Literature · Monarchy · Novella · Philology · Politics · Race (biology) · Social science · Sociology · Classics · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · History · Law · Philosophy

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