End of the great race

The book consists of two parts:

Part One

The first part discusses the basics of the racial issue and sets out Grant’s position on contemporary political issues (eugenics). The cornerstone of Grant's position was the increase in the number of immigrants from the non-Nordic part of Europe. According to Grant, American Protestant society of the early 20th century, whose members could trace their origins to the time of colonization , was threatened by immigrants and representatives of the “qualitatively worse” races. Grant saw the United States as a Nordic country with a population formed by Nordic immigrants from England, Scotland and the Netherlands, who arrived in the era of colonization, and Nordic immigrants from Ireland and Germany, who arrived at a later time. According to Grant, some parts of the European continent were characterized by underdevelopment and were a source of immigrants, for their racial characteristics, which did not correspond to the US Nordic political system. Grant also addressed the issue of increasing the number of blacks in the urban population of the American North.

Grant noted that the new immigrants belonged to different races and created separate communities within the United States, including ethnic lobbying groups , criminal syndicates and political mechanisms that undermined the socio-political structure of the state, and, consequently, the position of not only the original Anglo-Saxon population of the United States , but also the entire Nordic race. After analyzing demographic studies, economic factors, the situation on the labor market, etc., Grant concluded that the consequences of such a disruption are clearly manifested in the form of a decrease in living standards and birth rates, as well as in the moral decay of contemporary American society. According to Grant, the Nordic races in the USA are dying out, and America - in the form in which it was earlier - will cease to exist and turn into a fragmented country or into a corrupt caricature of itself.

Part Two

The second part of the book examines the history of three European races: the Nordic , Alpine and Mediterranean , as well as their physiological and mental characteristics. In this part, fragmentary views on the theory of Aryan migration, ethnology , anthropology and history merge into a broad historical overview of the rise and fall of these races, their expansion from their historical homeland and retreat back to its borders. In this part of the book, the history of America is connected with the history of Europe, in particular with the history of its Nordic states.

Grant's book is a thorough examination of racial hygiene and a detailed study of world racial history. Relying on the scientific theories of genetics and Darwinian evolution , as well as on the work of eugenics and racial researchers preceding him, Grant's work is a generalization written in clear language, intended for a wide audience. ^[3]

Summarizing, we can say that the book sets forth in detail Grant's interpretation of contemporary anthropology and history, which consists in their dependence, mainly not on the environment, but on a racial idea. In particular, Grant promotes the idea of ​​the Nordic race, as the main social group that ensures the development of mankind - hence the subtitle of the book: "The Racial Basis of European History." In the book, Grant also supports eugenics, advocating the sterilization of “unwanted” with its possible extension to “those types that can be called weaklings” and “ultimately, possibly to racial types of no value”:

“A rigid selection system by eliminating the weak by body or health - in other words, socially unsatisfactory subjects - would completely resolve this issue in one hundred years, and also allow us to get rid of unwanted elements that overwhelm our prisons, hospitals and psychiatric hospitals. Such subjects themselves can receive food, education and protection from those around them throughout their lives, but the state, using sterilization, must ensure the suppression of their biological lines, otherwise the future generations will be cursed in the form of increasing oppression that has lost all sorts of sentimentality. Sterilization is a practical, compassionate and inevitable solution to this whole problem, and it can be consistently applied to an ever wider circle of social garbage - starting in all cases with criminals, painful and crazy, gradually moving to those types that can be called weaklings rather than flawed , and, ultimately, possibly racial types of no value. ”

Other main ideas of the book include Grant's recommendations on the creation of non-governmental organizations within the public health system with quasi-dictatorial powers in their area of ​​responsibility and with administrative rights to evict representatives of unwanted races to special areas of residence . Grant also writes that an increase in the number of non-Nordic racial types in the Nordic system based on freedom will actually mean slavish dependence on desires, passions and base behavior. Such corruption of society, in turn, will lead to the subordination of the Nordic population to the “qualitatively worse” races, which, in turn, will welcome the dominance and instructions of the “higher”, using authoritarian power. The result will be the fall of the original Nordic races to the bottom of a corrupted and powerless system, over which less qualitative races dominate.

Grant's Views on Nordic Theory

The Nordic theory in Grant's formulation was, in many respects, borrowed from the work of Arthur Gobino , published in the 1850s, with the exception that in the definition of races Gobino relied on language learning, and Grant - on physical anthropology . Both researchers divided humanity into three main pronounced races: Caucasoid (with a base range in Europe, North Africa and West Asia), Negroid (with a base range in Central and South Africa) and Mongoloid (with a base range in Central and East Asia). However, the Nordic theory provided for the further division of the European race into three parts: the Nordic (living in Scandinavia, Poland, northern Germany, Austria, England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Flanders, northern France, North-West Russia, and also in some parts of Eastern Europe), Alpine (whose territory stretched from Central Europe, parts of northern Italy, Slovakia through the Balkans / South-Western Europe, the center and south of Russia, Turkey and reached Central Asia) and the Mediterranean (living in the south of F France, on the Iberian Peninsula, in southern Italy, Greece, Wales, in parts of England and Scotland, North Africa and in parts of the Middle East and Central and South Asia).

According to Grant , the Nordics probably developed in a climate that “must have imposed severe restrictions on the flawed ones through harsh winters and the need for hard work and anticipation for a short summer to provide themselves with food, clothing and shelter for most of the year.” Such long-term energy needs lead to the formation of a strong, viable and self-sufficient race that will inevitably defeat those nations whose weak elements have not been previously cleared by the equally harsh environmental conditions ”(p. 170). Grant believed that the most probable region for the formation of the “ proto-Nordic ” man was “the forests and plains of East Germany, Poland and Russia” (p. 170).

According to his hypothesis, the Nordic was Homo europaeus or a white man in the full sense of the word. In all places of its habitat, Nordic shows certain unique characteristics associated with high growth, namely wavy dark blond or blond hair; blue, gray or hazel eyes; fair skin; high, narrow and straight nose; an elongated skull, as well as thick hair and male-type hair ^[4] . "Grant considered Alpiytsev the lowest of the three European races, and the Nordics as the peak of civilizational development:

“Throughout the world, the Nordics are a race of soldiers, sailors, adventurers and explorers, but above all, a race of rulers, organizers and aristocrats, in stark contrast to the predominantly peasant character of the Alpines. Chivalry and nobility, as well as their still existing, albeit greatly weakened equivalents, are characteristic Nordic features, and feudalism, class differences and racial pride common among Europeans can be traced, for the most part, to their sources in the North. ”

Being familiar with the theory of Nordic migration in the Mediterranean, Grant seems to reject this theory as an explanation of the high level of development of Greco-Roman civilization:

“The mental characteristics of the Mediterranean race are well known, and this race, being physically weaker than both the Nordics and Alpines, probably surpasses them, especially Alpines, in the field of intellectual achievements. In the field of art, the superiority of the Mediterranean over the other two European races is undeniable. "

And yet, despite the recognition of the ability of the Mediterranean to art, as demonstrated by the above quote, later in the book, Grant, as a concession to the supporters of the theory of Nordic migration, notes that the true achievements of the Mediterranean took place only due to their mixing with the Nordics:

“This race has given the world the great civilizations of Egypt , Crete , Phenicia and Carthage , Etruria and Mycenaean Greece . She gave us, mixed with the Nordic element and inspired by it, the most magnificent of civilizations - ancient Hellas and the most durable of political organizations - the Roman state . Now it’s hard to say how much the Mediterranean race has entered the blood and civilization of Rome, however, the traditions of the Eternal City, its love of organization and law , its military effectiveness , as well as the Roman ideals of family life, fidelity and truth — all clearly indicate their rather Nordic than the Mediterranean origin. "

Thus, Grant gave the impression of carefully following scientific theory. Critics warned of his use of a vicious circle in evidence ^[5] . In his presentation, the favorable characteristics of a people - “family life, loyalty and truth” - were presented as exceptional features of the “Nordic race”. Thus, whenever such traits were found in any non-Nordic culture, Grant said that they were evidence of a Nordic influence or the result of mixing with the Nordics, and he never questioned the assumption of the exclusively Nordic origin of these traits. ^[6]

It is alleged that by 1937, 17,000 copies of this book were sold in the United States. In the 1920s, the book received positive reviews, but in the 1930s, Grant's popularity declined. One of those who accepted the book well and supported the ideas expressed in it was Adolf Hitler, who personally wrote a letter to Grant and thanked him for this book, referring to it as "my Bible." ^[7]

Spiro (2009) cites the following five reasons for the small number of books sold:

• The book was published at a time when anti-German propaganda was gaining momentum, spreading images of violence against nuns and bombed cathedrals.
• The ideas presented in the book were anti-democratic and anti-Christian, which could not be well received by the patriotic public.
• The statement about the leading role of heredity in the formation of a person was contrary to the belief in education, hard work, and the ability to achieve everything independently.
• During the First World War, the influx of immigrants to the United States decreased due to the use of ships for the transport of military goods.
• The publisher categorized the book as “science,” so the book had no chance of widespread popularity. ^[eight]

Grant's Nordic racial theory was based on scientific publications, especially in the field of anthropology.

According to Grant, the current state of the Nordics was deplorable due to their rejection of cultural values ​​rooted in the primordial religious or superstitious racial sense. The Nordics were on the verge of “racial suicide”, due to mixed marriages and low birth rates compared with the qualitatively worse races who did not miss the opportunity to take advantage of this state of affairs. In the twenties and thirties of the last century, the Nordic racial theory found wide support among supporters of the racial hygiene movement in Germany, though they usually used the term " Aryan " instead of "Nordic", although the main ideologist of Nazism Alfred Rosenberg preferred the names "Aryan-Nordic" or "Nordic -Atlantic ”(Nordic-Atlantean). Stephen Gould called the book The End of the Great Race the most influential treatise of American scientific racism. ^[9]

Grant participated in many anthropological debates, opposing anthropologist Franz Boas , who advocated cultural anthropology as opposed to the “hereditary school” of physical anthropology , which was supported by Grant. Boas and his students were staunch opponents of racial concepts and believed that any obvious racial inequality was due to social rather than biological factors. ^[ten]

Grant advocated reducing US immigration by restricting immigration from East Asia and Southern Europe. He also advocated purification of the country's population through selection. From 1922 until his death, Grant served as the Vice President of the League for restricting immigration . Having been recruited as an expert on world racial data, Grant prepared the statistics used in the adoption of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, which established immigration quotas for some European countries. Already after the adoption of this law, Grant did not hide his annoyance that every year a small number of non-Nordics still received the right to enter the United States. Grant also promoted the adoption and enforcement of several laws against mixed marriages , in particular the Virginia Racial Purity Act of 1924, with which Grant wanted to codify his own version of the “ one drop of blood rule ”.

The grant became part of the American mass culture of the twenties of the last century. F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a slightly camouflaged form, mentioned him in his “ Great Gatsby ” - in “This Goddard,” who wrote the book “The Rise of the Color Empires,” read by Thomas Buchanan, and he can easily guess the collective allusion to Grant and his colleague Lotropa Stoddard. Grant was the author of the introduction to Stoddard’s book, The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy . The character created by Fitzgerald says of this book as follows: “Everyone should read it. It says that if we are not on the alert, then the white race ... it will simply overwhelm and sink. This is a scientific study, everything is proven there. ”

It is possible that the subtitle of E. Hemingway ’s book “Spring Waters. A romantic novel in honor of the end of one great race. ”Is also an allusion to Grant's book. The Spring Water novel was a parody of modern Hemingway writers, whom he sarcastically called the "great race."

In the 1930s, the American public turned away from Grant's ideas, his book was no longer for sale, and his supporters left him ^[2] . However, in Europe in those years, the Nordic theory was accepted, and not only by the Nazis. Grant’s book, like books of this genre in general, was in demand in Germany, although supporters of eugenics increasingly focused on the ideology of Nazism, under the auspices of which G. Himmler created the Lebensborn organization, designed to preserve a typical Nordic gene pool characterized by phenotypic manifestations such as blond hair and blue eyes.