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Introduction: Rediscovering a Lost Science

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The Races of Europe

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Abstract

This book is a transnational history of national identity. It tells the strange story of a Europe-centred scientific community which, roughly from the 1830s to the 1940s, investigated human biology in order to reveal the racial ‘true’ identities of European nations. Race classification was especially central to the construction of ethnic families (e.g. Celts, Teutons, Slavs), a key component of national identity. Biologists lent ethnic nations the prestige of natural science, and justified them as natural ‘national races’ (my term), whose psychological characteristics, conflicts and geopolitical relationships extended back into prehistory.

Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning?

Hamlet to Yorick’s skull (V.1.186–90).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    E.g. Orsucci (1998), Blanckaert (1989), Mazumdar (1990), Fee (1979), Yeomans (2007), Evans (2010), Lafferton (2007), Reynaud-Paligot (2006), Zimmerman (2001), and Kyllingstad (2015). Research on national identity construction in disciplines like archaeology (Díaz-Andreu and Champion 1996) and history (Berger et al. 2002) began earlier.

  2. 2.

    Büger and Gadinger (2007: 94), Evans (2010: 8), and Adler-Nissen and Kropp (2015: 156).

  3. 3.

    Poskett (2015: 266), Reynaud-Paligot (2011: 7), and Heilbron et al. (2008: 146–47).

  4. 4.

    Büger and Gadinger (2007: 96–98 & 103) and Conklin (2013: 8).

  5. 5.

    Adler-Nissen and Kropp (2015: 160–65).

  6. 6.

    Evans (2010: 8) and Adler-Nissen and Kropp (2015: 160–65).

  7. 7.

    Manias (2013: 10).

  8. 8.

    Manias (2013: 10) and Conklin (2013: 10–11).

  9. 9.

    Tristram (1996: 56–58).

  10. 10.

    Cited in Odom (1967: 9).

  11. 11.

    Baum (2006: 113–15).

  12. 12.

    1951: 36.

  13. 13.

    Cited in Zimmerman (2001: 145).

  14. 14.

    McMahon (2009).

  15. 15.

    Agnew (1994).

  16. 16.

    Manias (2013: 6) and Reynaud-Paligot (2011: 7).

  17. 17.

    Heilbron et al. (2008: 147) and Poskett (2015: 266).

  18. 18.

    Iriye (2004: 211–23).

  19. 19.

    Schöpflin (2000: 90–98). Exceptions include Stråth and ap Malmborg (2002) and Armstrong (1982).

  20. 20.

    Poskett (2015: 266).

  21. 21.

    2009: 737–38.

  22. 22.

    Heilbron et al. (2008: 146) and Reynaud-Paligot (2011: 8).

  23. 23.

    Hart (2013: 187).

  24. 24.

    I only capitalise geographical terms like these when referring to reified regions.

  25. 25.

    New monographs examine German (Hoßfeld 2005), Greek (Trubeta 2013) and Russian (Mogilner 2013) cases and Turda (2007, 2010, 2012) works extensively on Romania and Hungary. Important shorter studies include Lafferton (2007), Felder (2013), Yeomans (2007), and Promitzer (2007).

  26. 26.

    Felder (2013: 118), Mogilner (2013: 1–2 & 375), and Turda (2007: 362).

  27. 27.

    E.g. Harris (1996).

  28. 28.

    Naylor (2005: 9).

  29. 29.

    Manias (2009: 733–34).

  30. 30.

    Manias (2013: 4).

  31. 31.

    McMahon (2013a: 203) and Stråth (2002: 133).

  32. 32.

    McMahon (2009).

  33. 33.

    Adler-Nissen and Kropp (2015: 160–65) and Manias (2013: 5).

  34. 34.

    Manias (2013: 9), Marks (1996: 345), and Evans (2010: 5).

  35. 35.

    Reynaud-Paligot (2011: 11).

  36. 36.

    Manias (2009: 737).

  37. 37.

    2013: 2–3.

  38. 38.

    2001: 3–4 & 239.

  39. 39.

    Bunzl and Penny (2003: 1).

  40. 40.

    2013: 21, 24 & 31.

  41. 41.

    Manias (2013: 103 & 114).

  42. 42.

    MacMaster (2001: 5) and Manias (2013: 9).

  43. 43.

    Lindqvist (2002: 157–60) and Malik (1996: 81–82).

  44. 44.

    Heilbron et al. (2008: 148).

  45. 45.

    Projects like Area, EU, Celtic and Cultural Studies remain important.

  46. 46.

    Mucchielli (1997).

  47. 47.

    Manias (2009: 736) and de Nie (2004: 12–13).

  48. 48.

    Adler-Nissen and Kropp (2015: 160–65).

  49. 49.

    Kohli (2000: 115–17).

  50. 50.

    Adler (2010).

  51. 51.

    Said (1995: 7, 14, 22, 114, 338 & 342).

  52. 52.

    Müller (2008: 323–24) and McMahon (2011: 73).

  53. 53.

    Sommer (2010: 367) and Callon (1986).

  54. 54.

    Büger and Gadinger (2007: 96–98 & 103) and Bourdieu (2004: 47–48).

  55. 55.

    2000: 20.

  56. 56.

    Adler-Nissen and Kropp (2015: 160–65).

  57. 57.

    Reynaud-Paligot (2011: 8).

  58. 58.

    Jönnsen et al. (2000: 3–5).

  59. 59.

    E.g. Rokkan (1980), Therborn (1995), and Moretti (1999).

  60. 60.

    Kohli (2000: 130).

  61. 61.

    Texts in bold type were used to compile the statistical database.

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    Richard McMahon

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McMahon, R. (2016). Introduction: Rediscovering a Lost Science. In: The Races of Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31846-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-31846-6_1

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