Editing Arthur de Gobineau (section)

== ''An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races'' ==
[[File:Arthur de Gobineau, Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines (original).jpg|thumb|alt=Photograph of the cover of the original edition of ''An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races''| Cover of the original edition of ''An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races'']]

In his ''An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races,'' published in 1855, Gobineau seemingly accepts the prevailing Christian doctrine that all human beings shared the common ancestors Adam and Eve ([[monogenism]] as opposed to [[polygenism]]). Statements like "nothing proves that at the first redaction of the Adamite genealogies the colored races were considered as forming part of the species"; and, "We may conclude that the power of producing fertile offspring is among the marks of a distinct species. As nothing leads us to believe that the human race is outside this rule, there is no answer to this argument"<ref name="J.A.Gobineau 1856 p.337–338">J. A. Gobineau: ''The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races''. J. B. Lippincott & Co, Philadelphia (1856), pp. 337–338</ref> can be read as intentionally misleading discourse, inserted into the essay in anticipation of contemporary religious critiques.  

Gobineau sketched several different races, attributing each with a different level of civility. Unsurprisingly, he placed the 'European' in the most developed stage (or ''l'état lumineux''). In a historical context were the dominant idea was that 'civility' was developed over time, the different stages of development could imply a separate creation of races, the most developed created first, and the least developed created last (polygenesis). A different interpretation could be that all races were created together, but that the 'non-European' races simply stopped developing (monogenesis). Furthermore, Gobineau clarified that he wrote about races, not individuals: examples of talented black or Asian individuals did not disprove his thesis of the supposed inferiority of the black and Asian races. He wrote: {{blockquote|"I will not wait for the friends of equality to show me such and such passages in books written by missionaries or sea captains, who declare some Wolof is a fine carpenter, some Hottentot a good servant, that a Kaffir dances and plays the violin, that some Bambara knows arithmetic … Let us leave aside these puerilities and compare together not men, but groups."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=D'souza|first=dinesh|date=Autumn 1995|title=Is Racism a Western Idea?|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41212409|journal=The American Scholar|volume=64|issue=4|page=538|jstor=41212409}}</ref>}} Gobineau argued that race was destiny, declaring rhetorically: {{blockquote|So the brain of a Huron Indian contains in undeveloped form an intellect which is absolutely that same as an Englishman or a Frenchman! Why then, in the course of the ages has he not then invented printing or steam power?}}

Gobineau's primary thesis was that European civilization flowed from Greece to Rome, and then to Germanic and contemporary civilization. He thought this corresponded to the ancient [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] culture,<ref>Mallory, J. P. (1991), ''In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Culture and Myth'', London: [[Thames & Hudson]], p. 125.</ref> or "[[Aryan]]"—a common term at the time used to denote prehistorical [[Indo-Iranians]] praised as the ancestors of the 'most developed', 'European race'. This included groups classified by language like the Celts, Slavs and the Germans.<ref>{{cite book|title=Honorary Aryans: National-Racial Identity and Protected Jews in the Independent State of Croatia|author=Nevenko Bartulin|year=2013|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|isbn=978-1-137-33912-6|page=23}}</ref><ref>Among the groups which Gobineau classified as Aryan were the Hindus, Iranians, Hellenes, Celts, Slavs and Germanic people. {{cite book|title=The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages|author=Ian Wood|date= 2013|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-965048-4|page=107}}</ref> Gobineau later came to use and reserve the term Aryan only for the "Germanic race", and described the Aryans as ''la race germanique''.<ref>A. J. Woodman, 2009, ''The Cambridge Companion to Tacitus'', p. 294. (The Germanic race was also regarded by Gobineau as beautiful, honourable and destined to rule: 'cette illustre famille humaine, la plus noble'. While ''[[Aryan|arya]]'' was originally an [[endonym]] used only by [[Indo-Iranians]], "Aryan" became, partly because of the ''Essai'', a racial designation of a race, which Gobineau specified as 'la race germanique').</ref> By doing so, he presented a racist theory in which Aryans—that is Germanic people—were all that was positive.<ref>So that the reader not be left in ignorance as to who the Aryans are, Gobineau stated, ''La race germanique était pourvue de toute l'énergie de la variété ariane'' ("The Germanic race was provided with all the energy of the Aryan race"). We see, then, that he presents a racist theory in which the Aryans, or Germans, are all that is good. ''Comparative literature''. by American Comparative Literature Association. [[Modern Language Association|Modern Language Association of America]]. Comparative Literature Section.; University of Oregon. 1967, p. 342</ref>

=== Reaction to Gobineau's essay ===
The ''Essai'' attracted mostly negative reviews from French critics, which Gobineau used as a proof of the supposed truth of his racial theories, writing "the French, who are always ready to set anything afire—materially speaking—and who respect nothing, either in religion or politics, have always been the world's greatest cowards in matters of science".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=148}} However, events such as the expansion of European and American influence overseas and the [[unification of Germany]] led Gobineau to alter his opinion to believe the "[[White people|white race]]" could be saved. The German-born American historian [[George Mosse]] argued that Gobineau projected his fear and hatred of the French middle and working classes onto Asian and Black people.{{sfn|Davies|1988|p=60}}

Summarizing Mosse's argument, Davies argued that: "The self-serving, materialistic oriental of the ''Essai'' was really an anti-capitalist's portrait of the money-grubbing French middle class" while "the sensual, unintelligent and violent negro" that Gobineau portrayed in the ''Essai'' was an aristocratic caricature of the French poor.{{sfn|Davies|1988|pp=60–61}} In his writings on the French peasantry, Gobineau characteristically insisted in numerous anecdotes, which he said were based on personal experience, that French farmers were coarse, crude people incapable of learning, indeed of any sort of thinking beyond the most rudimentary level of thought. As the American critic Michelle Wright wrote, "the peasant may inhabit the land, but they are certainly not part of it".{{sfn|Wright|1999|p=839}} Wright further noted the very marked similarity between Gobineau's picture of the French peasantry and his view of blacks.{{sfn|Wright|1999|pp=831–852}}

===Time in Persia===
In 1855, Gobineau left Paris to become the first secretary at the French legation in [[Tehran]], Persia (modern Iran). He was promoted to ''chargé d'affaires'' the following year.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=323}} The histories of Persia and Greece had played prominent roles in the ''Essai'' and Gobineau wanted to see both places for himself.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=182}} His mission was to keep Persia out of the Russian sphere of influence, but he cynically wrote: "If the Persians ... unite with the western powers, they will march against the Russians in the morning, be defeated by them at noon and become their allies by evening".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=182}} Gobineau's time was not taxed by his diplomatic duties, and he spent time studying ancient [[cuneiform]] texts and learning [[Persian language|Persian]]. He came to speak a "kitchen Persian" that allowed him to talk to Persians somewhat. (He was never fluent in Persian as he said he was.){{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=323}} Despite having some love for the Persians, Gobineau was shocked they lacked his racial prejudices and were willing to accept blacks as equals. He criticized Persian society for being too "democratic".

Gobineau saw Persia as a land without a future destined to be conquered by the West sooner or later. For him this was a tragedy for the West. He believed Western men would all too easily be seduced by the beautiful Persian women causing more miscegenation to further "corrupt" the West.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=323}} However, he was obsessed with ancient Persia, seeing in [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid Persia]] a great and glorious Aryan civilization, now sadly gone. This was to preoccupy him for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=324}} Gobineau loved to visit the ruins of the Achaemenid period as his mind was fundamentally backward looking, preferring to contemplate past glories rather than what he saw as a dismal present and even bleaker future.{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=324}}

His time in Persia inspired two books: ''Mémoire sur l'état social de la Perse actuelle'' (1858) ("Memoire on the Social State of Today's Persia") and ''Trois ans en Asie'' (1859) ("Three Years in Asia").{{sfn|Irwin|2016|p=324}}

Gobineau was less than complimentary about modern Persia. He wrote to Prokesch-Osten that there was no "Persian race" as modern Persians were "a breed mixed from God knows what!". He loved ancient Persia as the great Aryan civilization par excellence, however, noting that Iran means "the land of the Aryans" in Persian.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=183}} Gobineau was less Eurocentric than one might expect in his writings on Persia, believing the origins of European civilization could be traced to Persia. He criticized western scholars for their "collective vanity" in being unable to admit to the West's "huge" debt to Persia.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=183}}

===Josiah C. Nott and Henry Hotze===
[[File:Josiah Clarke Nott.jpg|thumb|226x226px|alt=Sepia photograph of Josiah C. Nott looking to his left | Josiah C. Nott]]
[[File:Henry Hotze.jpg|thumb|226x226px|alt=Photograph of Henry Hotzel looking at the casmera | Henry Hotze]]

In 1856, two American "race scientists", [[Josiah C. Nott]] and [[Henry Hotze]], both ardent [[White supremacy|white supremacists]], translated ''Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines'' into English. Champions of slavery, they found in Gobineau's anti-black writings a convenient justification for the "peculiar institution".{{sfn|Wright|1999|p=833}} Nott and Hotze found much to approve of in the ''Essai'' such as: "The Negro is the most humble and lags at the bottom of the scale. The animal character imprinted upon his brow marks his destiny from the moment of his conception".{{sfn|Wright|1999|p=833}} Much to Gobineau's intense annoyance, Nott and Hotze abridged the first volume of the ''Essai'' from 1,600 pages in the French original down to 400 in English.{{sfn|Wright|1999|p=837}} At least part of the reason for this was because of Gobineau's hostile picture of Americans. About American white people, Gobineau declared: {{blockquote|They are a very mixed assortment of the most degenerate races in olden-day Europe. They are the human flotsam of all ages: Irish, crossbreed Germans and French and Italians of even more doubtful stock. The intermixture of all these decadent ethnic varieties will inevitably give birth to further ethnic chaos. This chaos is no way unexpected or new: it will produce no further ethnic mixture which has not already been, or cannot be realized on our own continent. Absolutely nothing productive will result from it, and even when ethnic combinations resulting from infinite unions between Germans, Irish, Italians, French and Anglo-Saxons join us in the south with racial elements composed of Indian, Negro, Spanish and Portuguese essence, it is quite unimaginable that anything could result from such horrible confusions, but an incoherent juxtaposition of the most decadent kinds of people.{{sfn|Wright|1999|pp=837–838}}}} Highly critical passages like this were removed from ''The Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races'', as the ''Essai'' was titled in English. Nott and Hotze retained only the parts relating to the alleged inherent inferiority of blacks.{{sfn|Wright|1999|p=838}} Likewise, they used Gobineau as a way of attempting to establish that white America was in mortal peril despite the fact that most American blacks were slaves in 1856. The two "race scientists" argued on the basis of the ''Essai'' that blacks were essentially a type of vicious animal, rather than human beings, and would always pose a danger to whites.{{sfn|Wright|1999|pp=839–845}} The passages of the ''Essai'' where Gobineau declared that, though of low intelligence, blacks had certain artistic talents and that a few "exceptional" African tribal chiefs probably had a higher IQ than those of the stupidest whites were not included in the American edition. Nott and Hotze wanted nothing that might give blacks admirable human qualities.{{sfn|Wright|1999|pp=838–39}} Beyond that, they argued that nation and race were the same, and that to be American was to be white.{{sfn|Wright|1999|p=846}} As such, the American translators argued in their introduction that just as various European nations were torn apart by nationality conflicts caused by different "races" living together, likewise ending slavery and granting American citizenship to blacks would cause the same sort of conflicts, but only on a much vaster scale in the United States.{{sfn|Wright|1999|p=847}}

===Time in Newfoundland===
In 1859, an Anglo-French dispute over the French fishing rights on the [[French Shore]] of [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] led to an Anglo-French commission being sent to Newfoundland to find a resolution to the dispute. Gobineau was one of the two French commissioners dispatched to Newfoundland, an experience that he later recorded in his 1861 book ''Voyage à Terre-Neuve'' ("Voyage to Newfoundland"). In 1858, the Foreign Minister Count [[Alexandre Colonna-Walewski]] had tried to send Gobineau to the French legation in Beijing. He objected that as a "civilized European" he had no wish to go to an Asian country like China.{{sfn|Wilkshire|1993|p=8}} As punishment, Walewski sent Gobineau to Newfoundland, telling him he would be fired from the Quai d'Orsay if he refused the Newfoundland assignment.{{sfn|Wilkshire|1993|p=9}}

Gobineau hated Newfoundland, writing to a friend in Paris on 26 July 1859: "This is an awful country. It is very cold, there is almost constant fog, and one sails between pieces of floating ice of enormous size."{{sfn|Wilkshire|1993|p=10}} In his time in [[St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador|St. John's]], a city largely inhabited by Irish immigrants, Gobineau deployed virtually every anti-Irish cliché in his reports to Paris. He stated the Irish of St. John's were extremely poor, undisciplined, conniving, obstreperous, dishonest, loud, violent, and usually drunk.{{sfn|Gobineau|1993|p=104}} He described several of the remote fishing settlements he visited in Utopian terms, praising them as examples of how a few hardy, tough people could make a living under very inhospitable conditions.{{sfn|Gobineau|1993|p=106}} Gobineau's praise for Newfoundland fishermen reflected his viewpoint that those who cut themselves off from society best preserve their racial purity.{{sfn|Wilkshire|1993|p=21}} Despite his normal contempt for ordinary people, he called the Newfoundland fishermen he met "the best men that I have ever seen in the world".{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=199}} Gobineau observed that in these remote coastal settlements, there were no policemen as there was no crime, going on to write: {{blockquote|I am not sorry to have seen once in my life a sort of Utopia. [...] A savage and hateful climate, a forbidding countryside, the choice between poverty and hard dangerous labour, no amusements, no pleasures, no money, fortune and ambition being equally impossible—and still, for all this, a cheerful outlook, a kind of domestic well-being of the most primitive kind. [...] But this is what succeeds in enabling men to make use of complete liberty and to be tolerant of one another.{{sfn|Biddiss|1970|p=199}}}}