Gobineau, Joseph-Arthur, Comte de

PMM 335

First edition.

"The French Diplomatist and man of letters, Gobineau [1816-1882] has, through the Essay ... exerted an influence upon European thought and action which is quite disproportionate to its scholarly insignificance and inconsequential argumentation ... Gobineau's racial theories were based on a complete misunderstanding of the positivism of Comte and the researches of Prichard into the physiological differences of the various human races ... he championed the theory, since entirely disproved, that 'race' is a permanent and immutable phenomenon, and he proclaimed the unchallengeable superiority of the white race over all others ... But there was enough substance in Gobineau's book to provide nourishment for the growth of pan-germanism and national self-adulation, and seemingly to justify anti-semitic and anti-slav excesses" (PMM).