Gobineau (European political thought)

by Ludwig Schemann

With an Introduction by D. C. J. Lee and Gobineau's (1816-1882) Essai sur l'inegalite des races humaines, of which the first part was published in 1853 and the second in 1855, is one of the most influential books of the 19th century; however, his theory of race is nearer to Nietzsche than to German National Socialism, though Rosenberg and his disciples did everything to detract Gobineau's theories. For Gobineau the incurable illness of the modern world is senility. The first duty of the individual is force; he aims at a despotic world, a world of force, happiness and youth. Charles de Remusat had introduced Gobineau to Alexis de Tocqueville and when the latter became Foreign Minister in 1849, he appointed Gobineau as his Chef de Cabinet. Yet Tocqueville never sympathised with Gobineau's racial concepts. Writing to an English friend he "here on the continent books are continually appearing which have for aim... the restriction or the annihilation of liberty. The Germans notably are doing their very best to prove that men are like horses and that it is enough to substitute one strain of blood for another to give them different feelings and different ideas. There has recently appeared in France a big work in four volumes which imparts these fine discoveries." [Tocqueville here refers to the Inegalite des races humaines. ] Schemann's monograph gives a full account of Gobineau's life and work. German Text Three Volumes in Two

2 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1979