American myths about national character tend to overshadow the historical realities. Reginald Horsman’s book is the first study to examine the origins of racialism in America and to show that the belief in white American superiority was firmly ensconced in the nation’s ideology by 1850.
The author deftly chronicles the beginnings and growth of an ideology stressing race, basic stock, and attributes in the blood. He traces how this ideology shifted from the more benign views of the Founding Fathers, which embraced ideas of progress and the spread of republican institutions for all. He finds linkages between the new, racialist ideology in America and the rising European ideas of Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, and scientific ideologies of the early nineteenth century. Most importantly, however, Horsman demonstrates that it was the merging of the Anglo-Saxon rhetoric with the experience of Americans conquering a continent that created a racialist philosophy. Two generations before the “new” immigrants began arriving in the late nineteenth century, Americans, in contact with blacks, Indians, and Mexicans, became vociferous racialists.
In sum, even before the Civil War, Americans had decided that peoples of large parts of this continent were incapable of creating or sharing in efficient, prosperous, democratic governments, and that American Anglo-Saxons could achieve unprecedented prosperity and power by the outward thrust of their racialism and commercial penetration of other lands. The comparatively benevolent view of the Founders of the Republic had turned into the quite malevolent ideology that other peoples could not be “regenerated” through the spread of free institutions.
Reginald Horsman was Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He earned his BA (1952) and his MA (1955) at the University of Birmingham, and his PhD from Indiana University in Bloomington in 1958. Horsman taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1958 until his retirement in 1999, during which time he received the Kiekhofer Teaching Award (1961), a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship (1965), and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence in 1995.
I have been aware of Reginald Horsman's "Race and Manifest Destiny" for many years. Finally, I have read it. The subject of the book is the striking transition in American thought from eighteenth-century Enlightenment attitudes/values based on education, optimism, and progress to a mid-nineteenth century Anglo-Saxon racial superiority that claimed other peoples were unteachable or expendable. Eighteenth-century claims of political, economic, and social improvement rested on clear assimilationist foundations. Follow the ideas of the American Revolution - liberty, republicanism, a little democracy - and you will get "happiness" too. American racism claimed to have a solid grounding in science (or "science"). Can we say biology as a social weapon? Yes. Racial arrogance was much more mythology than science. Suddenly, other peoples became innately incapable of any improvement at any time. Such ideas justified enslavement and expulsion. Horsman's book, published in 1981, captures these ideological transformations in American thought very well.
In Race and Manifest Destiny, Reginald Horsman surveys the origins and progression of Anglo-Saxon racial ideology and examines its consequences in American history. Primarily a history of ideas, the book sets the developments of ideologies against the backdrop of the American Revolution and expansion in a cohesive narrative. Anglo-Saxon supremacy allowed for the suppression of other peoples in American history—it justified their enslavement, domination, exclusion, and extinction.
Initially, American scholars were informed by an imported history that lauded the Anglo-Saxon development of free institutions and considered themselves descendants of an institutional ideal, not a bloodline or genetic race. Once they began to seek out tangible differences between peoples, perceived racial difference paved the way for “scientific evidence” of superiority. Religious scholars advocated the equality of man from the story of creation, leading to a compromise racial theory of polygenesis. The advent of racial destiny as a romanticized manifestation of scientific racism spread from the academic disciplines until it was common belief among the American public.
Belief in racial destiny justified territorial expansion and suppression of “lesser” peoples as inevitable (and justifiable). The supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race gave way to the supremacy of Anglo-Americans. This was the justification for the continued enslavement of blacks, the murder of American Indians, American expansion into Mexico, and even the potential eviction of the English from Oregon. By 1850, the American public and politicians believed that the Indians were doomed to extinction due to their inferiority, and that the black population existed safely only under the protection of their superior masters. The American expansion halted, in part, for the same reason it began—racial superiority dictated that the nation not be contaminated with the lesser races it had overcome. Instead, America would recreate the world in its image through economic expansion—not the acquisition of territory.
I'm pretty sure I waited so long to read this book because of its awful, hideous cover design. Gross!
But it's a truly amazing book, positioned at the crux of Ethnic Studies and American Studies...now wish I had read it in between my BA and MA/PhD. My only critique is that a few chapters could have been condensed (or almost tossed out), as there's a lot of repetition, not just of ideas, but of whole quotes. Kind of amazing that this scholarship has stood up over 30+ years!
Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.
Weinberg, Albert K. Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalistic Expansionism in American History, Quandrangle Paperback edition. Chicago: Quandrangle Books, 1963.
America widely portrays the topic of manifest destiny as a glorious drive to claim land that many would deem rightfully ours. Beyond the general recognition of what now makes up the 50 states, the American public fails to deeply ponder on the topic of manifest destiny and what scholars Reginald Horsman and Alex Weinberg would claim to be designs of “territorial aggrandizement.” Reginald Horsman’s Race and Manifest Destiny and Albert K. Weinberg’s Manifest Destiny reconsider manifest destiny in an attempt to pinpoint the American reasoning behind the growth from 13 colonies to America’s position in what Weinberg determines “world leadership.” While both books rest on the theme of manifest destiny as the American mission in which a proud people proliferate in attempt to improve the world, Horsman aims to look solely through the lens of race, while Weinberg looks at a variety of reasons used to justify the seizure of land. Besides the obvious similarity of the topic, the underlying theme of American exceptionalism ties the books together. Horsman begins Race and Manifest Destiny by noting that the Puritan establishment in America, a bitter successful fight for independence against the world’s premier superpower of the 18th century, and exponential growth in 60 following years endowed Americans with the impression that they were God’s “chosen people.” Similarly, in Manifest Destiny, Weinberg states that Americans thought of themselves as a special people with a “providential role in history.” While Weinberg devotes a whole chapter to the thought of American altruism, he provides much evidence throughout his book that Americans rationalized their expansion with the perception that they were improving the land or its people. This common view held from the extension of the colonies westward in the 19th century through the period of American imperialism. Because Americans historically perceived themselves in the right, Weinberg’s book aims not to judge America’s manifest destiny as a program of aggressive expansion based on self-aggrandizement, as Horsman might see it. Weinberg’s book considers manifest destiny as judged through American values of the time, not as many might judge it now. Ultimately, this multi-faceted and realistic approach makes the two books fundamentally different. Horsman stresses American exceptionalism through race as a primary reason for expansion. Typical of racial thought among prominent politicians Horsman notes that “For [Thomas Hart] Benton, as for so many others, ‘the children of Adam’ were to become the van of the Caucasian race’ between 1819 and 1846…and…will have completed the cumambulation of the globe, by marching to the west until they arrive at the Pacific Ocean, in sight of the eastern shore that Asia in which their first parents were originally planted.” One can trace racial motives in manifest destiny throughout Weinberg’s book, but it seldom takes primary significance. Weinberg’s chapter on “regeneration” argues that the Mexican American War intended to clear Mexican territory of its incompetent governing apparatus and its incapable people, a mission that Horsman would directly attribute to the eradication of mongrels. Yet, Weinberg suggests that Americans stopped short of the Anglo-Saxon crusade of “taking over the world” leaving south of the Rio Grande and the Yucatan to the Mexicans. While positing manifest destiny through a racial lens offers a new way to look at the subject, it can be limiting and in this case over-simplifying to consider it to be the driving factor behind expansion. Race and Manifest Destiny, written in 1981 reflects the then recent desire to break out of traditionalist scholarship. By considering prior taboos in scholarship, subjects like race provided new ways to look at well researched topics. The cult of Anglo-Saxonism, a derivative of the mythical Caucasian race provided sensitive subject matter, especially after Adolf Hitler’s Aryan mission drenched the world in blood. Race and Manifest Destiny infuses American manifest destiny with the notion of Anglo-Saxon superiority and the identified need to rid adjacent territories of inferior races of American Indian and Mexicans. Because racialism was at its peak in the first half of the 19th century, Horsman primarily considers this timeframe’s literature, government policies, and the intellectual thought maintained by those in power. Weinberg wrote Manifest Destiny in 1935 and provides a survey of diplomatic history from the Revolution until the time the book was written. This offers insight into the changing reasoning for American expansion and policies of foreign intervention, making it pertinent to recent world history where the United States has been the predominant world power and maintains the “policing role” that Weinberg identifies began with the country’s war with Spain over Cuban independence. While considering similar topics, several powerful and unique themes come up within Race and Manifest Destiny. Americans applied scientific thought, regardless of accuracy by today’s standards, to justify belief in Anglo-Saxon superiority. While Horsman identifies several pseudo-sciences of the 19th century, he fails to adequately explain the difference in them (he fails similarly in differentiating political terms such as Whig and Real Whig). The science most important to his argument is phrenology, vogue in the time period, which prominent Americans and scholars use to prove the American Indian’s inability to assimilate to the white man’s ways. To many of the designers of expansion, particularly in the 1840s, this warranted the eradication of the American Indian. As science convenienced expansionist reasoning, it brought another dilemma unique to Race and Manifest Destiny: attempts to scientifically prove Anglo-Saxon superiority conflicted with the biblical account that all man came from Adam and Eve. Still a largely religious nation, scholars engaged in an ongoing debate of monogenesis versus polygenesis. How could the Genesis account of man’s common ancestors be correct if science “proved” so much racial differentiation occurred since 4004 BC? This moral crisis does not occur in Manifest Destiny. With the concern of race, Horsman also gives a passing mention to the conflict that 19th century European immigration poses to Anglo-Saxon expansionist theory. While he mentions that Irish Americans hold their own view of racial superiority, nodding to a mixture of their Celtic blood with the Anglo-Saxon blend, Horsman does not fully explore this idea. Weinberg’s multi-faceted approach better showcases an evolution of expansionist thought. He divides Manifest Destiny into chapters that individually highlight each reason for expansion. Weinberg successfully puts each reason into its own context so that expansionist design does not always appear as malicious as what it appears in Horsman’s book. Upon first glance, terms such as natural right, political gravitation, inevitable destiny, and political affinity seem awkwardly coined. However, Weinberg deftly groups historical quotes together which use this terminology, supporting his categories of expansionist reasoning. With each reason for expansion, Weinberg gives several examples, sometimes even spanning a swath of American history. For instance, geographic predestination serves as an argument for seeking Florida and New Orleans in the late 18th century and Americans later uses it again to claim the island naval bases Hawaii and the Philippines as late as the turn of the 20th century. Other chapters, such as the one devoted to political affinity, relate to one special case for expansion. In the case of political affinity, it was the call for Canada to be annexed on the basis that its politics and culture were so close to America’s the two nations could form “a homogeneous republic.” With the myriad of reasons for expansion that Weinberg provides, they all differentiate from Horsman’s argument in that they tend to be reactionary, particularly to European designs. Examples such as the self defense chapter consider the United States forcing the 1917 sale of the Danish West Indies for defense of its commercial interests in the Panama Canal. The paramount interest chapter illustrates America’s desperation in securing control of the Panama Canal to protect its commerce and secure a highway of naval defense against European attack. While Weinberg explains the many reasons for territorial expansion in a contextual light, he does not excuse the hypocrisy of manifest destiny: the United States first reason for it, the natural right to self-determination contrasts sharply with later US efforts to meddle in the affairs of countries like the Philippines or in areas like Latin America. Race and Manifest Destiny and Manifest Destiny provide two very different takes on the classic historical topic of manifest destiny. While they maintain their own reasons for the phenomenon, both provide insights that unique and relevant today. Written in a revisionist manner, readers may find Race and Manifest Destiny a better secondary reading to the topic, while Manifest Destiny posits a multi-faceted take on the American land grab, which some might say, continues with America’s paramount interest in geographical areas such the Middle East and its current role as a world leader.
This book is an outstanding work of academic history research. That said I hated reading it. It is an unpleasant but all too real topic and this book made it clear how deep the roots of racism, manifest destiny and dreams of empire go back even to the colonial era. It was painful reading that people with my kind of heritage were and maybe still are considered stupid, lazy mongrels. It is horrible that some ethnic groups were considered by intellectuals, political leaders and the public as worthy of extermination. But they were writing and talking about this. I read this because I wanted to know about racism in America and it’s roots but I learned more than I bargained for. This book has all the details. If you are a student or academic needing a good source book to write an outstanding paper or masters thesis I highly recommend it. If your interest in this topic is more casual there are other books where undoubtedly you could get a basic understanding of this topic without feeling painfully overwhelmed by the long, sordid details of this sad topic. I live across the street from family housing for a major university and will bring my copy to their book box hoping that it can help a grad student write a brilliant masters thesis.
A tough pill to swallow but a necessary one. Goes deep into the mechanisms that exploited and abused African Americans, native Americans and Asian Americans, while securing wealth and land for the white men of the enterprise.
A heavy read but I don’t think it pulled any punches. Based on a true story.
Q. Why would you read this book? A: you are learning/researching US history, western expansion, History of race in the U.S., studying the 19th century in terms of race or racism. If you are interested in how social Darwinism and pseudosciences affected US race history. You’re a little weird. Someone told you you know nothing about racism and need to read a gd book.
Detailing the spread and change of the idea of whiteness and accompanying white supremacy throughout American history and how it payed its influence in legal, academic, and governmental systems.
The expansion of the United States reqired a racist ideology to justify the siezure of land from Native American and Mexicans. The forcibly emptied lands and the popular ideologies of white supremecy and Manifest Destiny provided the imperial US republic with the abundance, arrogance, and pioneer mythology that stupid bitches like Sarah Palin call "the real America".
Horsman offers a great history of the origins of racial Anglo-Saxonism. I particularly enjoyed and appreciated his work in tracing the rise of what he calls scientific racialism in the 19C. Some of the quotes he digs up from that period are absolutely amazing and, of course, appalling!
Just an amazing book - I loved it. It got me looking at and thinking about race in a whole new way. Before this book "Manifest Destiny" was just meaningless words.