Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE PASSING OF THE GREAT RACE
OR
THE RACIAL BASIS OF EUROPEAN HISTORY
PREFACE
European history has been written in terms ofnationality and of language, but never before interms of race; yet race has played a far larger partthan either language or nationality in moulding thedestinies of men; race implies heredity and heredityimplies all the moral, social and intellectualcharacteristics and traits which are the springs ofpolitics and government.
Quite independently and unconsciously the author,never before a historian, has turned thishistorical sketch into the current of a great biologicalmovement, which may be traced back tothe teachings of Galton and Weismann, beginningin the last third of the nineteenth century. Thismovement has compelled us to recognize thesuperior force and stability of heredity, as beingmore enduring and potent than environment.This movement is also a reaction from the teachingsof Hippolyte Taine among historians and of HerbertSpencer among biologists, because it provesthat environment and in the case of man, education,have an immediate, apparent and temporaryinfluence, while heredity has a deep, subtle andpermanent influence on the actions of men.
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