The leaders of the eugenics movement understood the implications of Boas’s views and the threat they posed to the eugenics agenda. They energetically went after him. In fact, Madison Grant had a long-standing “cold war” with Boas. As we have seen, Grant was a social Darwinist and anti-Semitic. He believed in the superiority of the Aryans and emphasized the dangers to civilization of the dilution of Aryan blood. Grant also idolized Ernst Haeckel, who was a staunch follower of Gobineau. Boas, on the other hand, was mentored by Rudolf Virchow, Haeckel’s main nemesis in Germany (Weindling 1989;
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