Customer Reviews

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

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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 I had the chance of reading it some six months ago, and found, that whilst some information is out of date and some concepts are flawed, many of the core ideas of the book are still sound.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categories (by-in-large ignoring the old terms, such as Teutonic and Aryan), although that is one that is partialy out of date.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

"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".

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.

Beautifully written and very Prophetic. I am a surprised at the low marks given this book until I saw the "reviews" that are either obscene or misspelled or both. Why do those of low I.Q. believe that a negative review by an idiot lends any weight to their argument?

Was given this book as a gift and would recommend it as an older tome about the White race at it's peak. I believe our best days are ahead of us, not behind; so I do not believe we are "passing". There were those who believed the Greek would pass from the earth beneath the weight of the Persian, but history happened a little differently.

If you read Madison Grant's book with anything besides a desire to learn about certain attitudes of the past, then you are wasting your time. It is a fascinating source for the history of racial attitudes during the time of increased immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe. Grant was a member of the eugenics movement and the movement to end unrestricted immigration from the "lower races" of Europe. His book was admired by the Nazi party, which changed Grant's term "Nordic" to "Aryan." I don't like this book because of its content; rather it is a valuable resource for researching racial attitudes of the past in relation to their historical context.

so many of our books today, have removed words that are 'delicate' to the races that believe these words are unacceptable to todays readers. This book brings to our eyes those differences between the cultures and races that do exist today. I was amazed to find our dictionarys and other reference books, have removed vital words because they want to be discrete and politically correct. This is a fine book for learning what they and others have tried to get us to forget.

Madison Grant's Passing of The Great Race was not very scientific, although many scientists at the time did support Grant's main claims. However, on a cultural level, one can see how peoples of northern ancestry tend to be of a stringer will than those of southern ancestry. Grant makes good arguments for Nordic superiority, using mostly recorded history rather than prehistoric anthropology. What I like about this book is that in it Grant warns of impending extinction of white Americans, especially those of colonial stock, as a result of unchecked immigration. Today it is relevant, although the problem has switched from Jews and Italians to Mexicans and other Hispanics. Grant also makes a good argument for eugenics.

A very realistic and unbiased account of a more civilized era in our history, before modern theories such as 'multiculturalism' came into vogue. Truthful, and accurate in its description of the genetic differences between the races.

Most reasonable people who are even aware of "The Passing of the Great Race" suppose that it has been tossed on the garbage heap of phony science, eugenics, racism, and corporate statism. Guess again, folks! Take a look at the reviews of this book by our fellow "readers" on amazon! There are people who think Madison Grant is alive and well! And he might as well be, since all the disgusting hate speech in "The Passing" is being recycled by Coulter, Malkin, Steyn and other profiteers of the rantosphere.
This book is a primary source for historians of the past century, a book more widely influential than Mein Kampf. It was the bible of the second Ku Klux Klan. Unfortunately it also hoodwinked people of heart and mind like Jack London and Theodore Roosevelt. If ever a book challenged my commitment to free speech, this is it! I would certainly not censor it, but I avow that the world would be a happier place if it had never been written.
Slavs, Jews, Greeks, Italians, and most everyone else who considers himself/herself "white"! Heads up! YOU are not included in Grant's vision of the Great Race. The racism in this book is narrow indeed, limited to the Anglo-Saxon stock, best uncontaminated by Frenchies, who built western civilization, brought hope to the dark continents, and invented bubble gum.
Read it and groan; the trendy conservatism of Americans today is a rehash of Madison Grant. Hark back, friends, to an era when white supremacy was the core of "political correctness."

Ever since the second world war it has been politically incorrect for the white race to resist walking quietly into the dark night of extinction. We have only ancient books to research to learn how to survive as a race due to genetically recessive genes. However, the white man is a Houdini and will astonish the world with his sudden resurgence into health.