The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy

Stoddard was Harvard educated, earning a Ph.D in history, in 1914. His credentials may have impressed some readers, but they were hardly necessary in persuading Americans to read him seriously. His brand of scientific racism was in fact very popular in the early decades of the 20 century. Like Madison Grant, he placed his hopes in a white race carefully bred according to eugenic principles. Nazi Germany, of course, also touted the value of eugenics in preserving a white master race, and in 1939 Stoddard was welcomed in Germany, where he remained for six months. He wrote, admiringly, of Hitler’s eugenics experiments afterward. Although discredited by science, such theories still appear in our culture, and in fact as of this writing, “The Rising Tide of Color” can be found online. In the excerpts below, Stoddard works to reconcile claims for natural racial affinity with the fact of massive, mutual slaughter among whites in the first world war.