Passing of the Great Race, Or, the Racial Basis of European History (American Immigration Collection, Ser 2) [Hardcover]

Madison Grant (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0405005776 | ISBN-13: 978-0405005770 | Publication Date: October 1970

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Ayer Co Pub (October 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0405005776
• ISBN-13: 978-0405005770
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,475,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The First "Modern" Treatment of Race in The 20th Century, July 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Passing of the Great Race, Or, the Racial Basis of European History (American Immigration Collection, Ser 2) (Hardcover)

Grant's "Passing of the Great Race", although barely known today (except amongst a few Racialists), was, at its time, a big seller. Former President Theodore Roosevelt (himself a Racialist, though more moderate then most in the movement on race) wrote a glowing review for the dust jacket, if I recall correctly. I had the chance of reading it some six months ago, and found, that whilst some information is out of date and some concepts are flawed, many of the core ideas of the book are still sound. It was the first book of its day, to my knowledge, that properly divided the Caucasiod Race into modern categories (by-in-large ignoring the old terms, such as Teutonic and Aryan), although that is one that is partialy out of date. The major arguements of the book are that the Nordic subdivision of the white race are its most productive, but are being bred out (as well as being killed off in the World War[which was a feature of Dr Lothrop Stoddard's "Rising Tide of Color"]) by the 'lower' Europeans, and that a sound Eugenics programme and a reduction in Eastern and Southern European immigration (the massive Third World Immigration wave was not even thought possible at that time). While I tend to disagree with many of the proposals in the book, it was one of the early pillars of Racialism in the 1920s and is still a pretty good read. One word of warning, this book is most certainly not for all tastes. If you are Politicaly Correct, or, for that matter, of modern sensibilities, do not read it. Otherwise, enjoy reading a good, albeit, biased history. R. A. Merryman

29 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Review of "The Passing of The Great Race", September 18, 2005

By 

T.W. Hagen "Brian" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passing of the Great Race, Or, the Racial Basis of European History (American Immigration Collection, Ser 2) (Hardcover)

"The Passing of The Great Race" was one of the racialist books written between 1855 and 1920 that would strongly influence the the National Socialist Party. The first was Gobineau's "The Inequality of The Human Races", the second was Houston Stewart Chamberlain's "The Foundations of The Nineteenth Century", the third was this one, and the fourth was Lothrop Stoddard's "The Rising Tide of Color Against White World Supremacy". Grant was a lawyer and conservationist who was a firm beleiver in the Old Order, free of Bolshevism and Socialism and centered around an Anglo-Saxon culture. Grant always tried to portray himself as more scientific than romantic racial theorists such as Chamberlain, but his theories actually have little scientific basis. For example, his division of Whites into Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean Races is anchored only on the basis of Nordic Scnadinavians having blonde hair, Alpine Slavs having brown hair, and Mediterranean Italians having black hair. Even worse is Grant's lack of historical basis. He considers the French, Southern Germans, and Poles to be a mix of Teutonic or Celtic Nordic peoples and dark-haired Alpine peoples who invaded Europe from Asia, but there was never any record of Asiatic peoples reaching France or Germany, at least not after the Celtic period. His classifications of Alpine are also very flimsy. He considers Southern Germans to be of Alpine stock, completely ignoring the fact that Southern Germans speak a Teutonic language and often have Teutonic features such as blonde hair and blue eyes. He also considers the Walloons of Belgium to be Alpine, ignoring the fact that they are descendants of the Celtic Belgae, who the Romans clearly described as being tall with blonde and red hair {sounds Nordic to me}. He also claims that the Irish and Welsh have substantial amounts of Mediterranean blood, ignoring the fact that both those peoples are Celtic and often have blonde or red hair. The most puzziling part of this whole thing is how this book became so popular when practicaly everyone is labled as inferior. Grant considers the only pure Nordics to be people with blonde hair and blue eyes, so why did people like Teddy Roosevelt {brunett} endorse it? Grant's book just lacks any spirit. I've read Chamberlain's "Foundations of The Nineteenth Century", and anyone who is of Celtic, Teutonic, or Slavic stock and is anti-Semitic will be riled up with the romaticism of the "Germanic" race being in constant battle with the Jews for survival. Anyone who has Celtic, Scandinavian, German, Anglo-Saxon, Polish, or Baltic ancestry is included in this Germanic race, while Grant tends to alienate anyone who isn't a blonde, blue-eyed Anglo-Saxon or Swede, even putting the Germans down as inferior. This book should also be compared to Stoddard's "The Rising Tide of Color", which was written four years later. Stoddard also went by the Nordic-Alpine-Mediterranean model, but focused less on this than on the White Race as a whole. Stoddard was a visionary, looking to White issue in the future. While Grant clamored about keeping non-Nordic Russians and Italians out of the country, Stoddard warned that the real dangers are non-White Asians and Negroes. Grant's book has little relevance to today's issues, as practically every White American is a German-Irish-Polish-Italian mix. Stoddard, however, saw that all Whites had to band together against the "rising tide of color".

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Most Popular Book of Its Day, December 26, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Passing of the Great Race, Or, the Racial Basis of European History (American Immigration Collection, Ser 2) (Hardcover)

Madison Grant's work is an intriguing summary of racial thought during his day. It was one of the bestsellers. It is, however, not a scientific textbook and should not be treated as such. Dr. Grant, however, was thoroughly knowedgable with a chair in zoology and as the major proponent of ecology in his day as the main force behind establishing Yellowstone. His works, along with others by men like Dr. Lothrop Stoddard heavily influenced future legislation in the 1930s restricting immigration. One reading this book must look at it from the perspective it was written and not by the anti-racist, bigoted perspective we have today.