Racism - A Short History - George M Fredrickson.pdf - WNLibrary

APPENDIX Racism in Historical Discourse
race pure from the contamination of Negro (or Southern
European or Jewish) ‘blood.’” In a misguided attempt at
evenhandedness (similar to that of Hirschfeld), he opined
that “[t]he Semite himself is race conscious and given his
chance, just as scornful and prejudiced as the Aryan who
would oppress him.” 23 Barzun conveyed how broadly he
conceived of his subject when he broke European racism of
the late nineteenth century into four distinct tendencies:
(1) racializing the rivalry between Germany and France as
Aryanism versus Celtism; (2) attributing the rise of socialism
to a Jewish conspiracy; (3) asserting that the German races
are rising and that the Latin races are declining; and (4)
believing that civilized whites must unify to hold in check
“the colored hordes of black, red, and yellow men whom
they have aroused from their ancestral torpor, else European
culture—or rather civilization itself—is doomed.” He
concluded: “No European figure of any importance in any
walk of life escaped, during that period [1870–1900], the
contamination of one or more of these beliefs.” 24
Despite being aware of the full scale of his subject, Barzun
concentrated almost all of his attention as a historian
of ideas on those thinkers who laid the foundation for the
Nazi embrace of Aryanism. Yet the specifically antisemitic
application of Aryanism receives surprisingly little attention.
“Race in Germany,” he explained, “was a means to
give back to the German people a feeling of self-respect
after the national humiliation at Versailles and since.” He
then went on to describe similar uses of racism for the purpose
of “national uplift” in other times and places. 25 No
mention was made of the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which
made racism official policy to a degree unparalleled in
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