Science, Politics, and Prejudice
The Dynamics and Significance of British Anthropology's Failure to Confront Nazi Racial Ideology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5840459 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bradley W Hart (0000-0003-0667-0702, California State University, Fresno, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 301-325 |
| Publication date | 2013-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | European History Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0265-6914 • E-ISSN: 1461-7110 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0265691413477069 |
| OpenAlex | W2123764956 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 3 |
For two years in the turbulent mid-1930s, the Royal Anthropological Institute co-convened an expert committee tasked with scientifically evaluating Nazi claims about race. Called the Race and Culture Committee, this body was created at the behest of Charles G. Seligman and given the unofficial objective of producing a strong anti-racist statement attacking the anthropological notion of a pure Aryan race. Scientists and other scholars of Jewish descent were intentionally excluded from the Committee to pre-emptively avert attacks on the report's validity by anti-Semites. However, such a report was never produced due to the interference of members who were committed to defending Nazi Germany and the country's racial policies. Using newly uncovered sources, this article argues that the Committee was doomed to failure from the start, and that its demise prevented the collective British anthropological establishment from attacking Nazi views on race with a unified voice before the Second World War despite an emerging consensus that the German government's pronouncements were scientifically indefensible. More significantly, there is also now evidence that the obstructionist faction within the Committee was taking its ideological direction directly from German scientific practitioners with their own agendas during this period, raising questions about the relationship between science, politics, and interactions between academics and the state. It was only with the later publication of We Europeans that mainstream British scientists would declare their opposition to Nazi racial views, but by then the opportunity to make a more impactful stand had been lost
Antisemitism · Aryan race · Opposition (politics · Prejudice (legal term · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Race, Genetics, and Society
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| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,42 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2025 (12) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |