Lothrop Stoddard
Encyclopedia
Theodore Lothrop Stoddard (June 29, 1883 – May 1, 1950) was an American
historian, journalist, racial anthropologist, eugenicist
, political theorist and anti-immigration advocate who wrote a number of books which are cited by historians as prominent examples of early 20th-century scientific racism
.
in 1883. He attended Harvard College
, graduating magna cum laude in 1905, and studied Law at Boston University
until 1908. Stoddard received a Ph.D. in History
from Harvard University
in 1914. He published many racialist books on what he saw as the peril of immigration
, his most famous being The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy
in 1920. In this book he presented a view of the world situation pertaining to race focusing concern on the coming population explosion among the "colored" peoples of the world and the way in which "white world-supremacy" was being lessened in the wake of World War I
and the collapse of colonialism
.
Stoddard argued race and heredity were the guiding factors of history and civilization, and that the elimination or absorption of the "white" race by "colored" races would result in the destruction of Western civilization. Like Madison Grant
(see The Passing of the Great Race
), Stoddard divided the white race into three main divisions: Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean. He considered all three to be of good stock, and far above the quality of the colored races, but argued that the Nordic was the greatest of the three and needed to be preserved by way of eugenics. Unlike Grant, Stoddard was less concerned with which varieties of European
people were superior to others (Nordic theory
), but was more concerned with what he called "bi-racialism," seeing the world as being composed of simply "colored" and "white" races. In the years after the Great Migration
and World War I
, Grant's racial theory would fall out of favor in the U.S. in favor of a model closer to Stoddard's. (Guterl 2004)
Stoddard's theories would help depopularize Grant's Nordicism among western racialists in favor of the beliefs known as "Pan-Aryanism" (Aryanism was the belief in a superior white European race). The post-World War II White nationalist movement would embrace Pan-Aryanism, as it incorporated all whites into a supposed superior race rather than just Northern Europe
ans.
Some predictions made in The Rising Tide of Color were accurate, while other were not. Accurate ones — not all of which were original to Stoddard or predicated on white supremacy — include Japan's rise as a major power; a war between Japan and the USA; a second war in Europe; the overthrowing of European colonial empires in Africa and Asia; the mass migration of non-white peoples to white countries; and the rise of Islam as a threat to the West because of Muslim religious fanaticism (Stoddard was an Islamic scholar and published the book The New World of Islam in 1921).
An allusion to the book occurs in F. Scott Fitzgerald
's The Great Gatsby
. Tom Buchanan, the husband of Daisy Buchanan, the novel's principal woman character, is reading a book titled The Rise of the Colored Empires by "this man Goddard." Throughout The Great Gatsby, Tom confusedly espouses Goddard's racial theories; the narrator calls Tom's focus on Goddard's ideas "pathetic."
Stoddard was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Birth Control League
, a forerunner to Planned Parenthood
by Margaret Sanger
. He was also a member of the American Historical Association, the American Political Science Association, and the Academy of Political Science. Stoddard was a lifelong Unitarian and Republican. During his lifetime, he engaged W. E. B. Du Bois in debate on white supremacy and its assertion of the natural inferiority of "colored" races.
In The Revolt Against Civilization (1922) he put forward the theory that civilization places a growing burden on individuals, leading to a growing underclass of individuals who cannot keep up, and a 'ground-swell of revolt'. Stoddard advocated immigration restriction and birth control legislation in order to reduce the numbers of the underclass while promoting the growth of the middle and upper classes. He believed social progress was impossible unless it was guided by a "neo-aristocracy" made up of the most capable individuals and reconciled with the findings of science rather than based on abstract idealism and egalitarianism.
After the passing of the Immigration Act of 1924
, which severely limited immigration from southern and eastern Europe, Stoddard urged for white unity and the assimilation of the immigrants in his book Reforging America. Unlike Madison Grant
and others, who only concerned themselves with keeping America racially "Nordic," Stoddard argued the non-Nordic white peoples who were now in the country needed to be assimilated/Americanized, and believed the country could continue to function so long as it was mostly "white" and retained its Nordic, Anglo-Saxon
core. Stoddard argued that there would be a coming racial struggle between "white" civilization and the "colored" world, and believed animosity and infighting between white ethnic groups and nationalities had to be diminished if the white race was to survive; as such he was an avid pacifist and was staunchly opposed to both World War I
and World War II
.
Stoddard authored over two dozen works, most related to race and civilization, echoing the themes of his previous works about the dangers of "colored" peoples against "white" civilization. He was also an enthusiastic stamp collector.
he spent 4 months as a journalist for the North American Newspaper Alliance
in Nazi Germany. He wrote Into the Darkness (1940) about his experiences there. Among other events, the book describes interviews with such figures as Heinrich Himmler
, Robert Ley
and Fritz Sauckel
He got preferential treatment by Nazi officials compared to other journalists. For example the Propaganda Ministry insisted that NBC
's Max Jordan
and CBS
's William Shirer use Stoddard to interview the captain of the Bremen
.
In The Rising Tide of Color Stoddard blasted the ethnic supremacism
of the Germans, blaming the "Teutonic imperialists" for the outbreak of the First World War. He opposed what he saw as the disuniting of White/European peoples through intense nationalism and infighting.
Between 1939 and 1940, Stoddard stayed for several months in Germany, later publishing a memoir on his experiences there titled Into the Darkness. One day he visited the Hereditary Health Supreme Court in Charlottenburg
, an appeals court that decided whether people would be forcibly sterilized. After having observed several dysgenics trials at the court, Stoddard stated that the eugenics legislation of Nazi Germany was "being administered with strict regard for its provisions and that, if anything, judgments were almost too conservative", and that the law was "weeding out the worst strains in the Germanic stock in a scientific and truly humanitarian way". Goddard was taken aback by the forthrightness of the Nazis' anti-Jewish views, foreseeing that the "Jewish problem" would soon be settled "by the physical elimination of the Jews themselves from the Third Reich".
After World War II, Stoddard's theories were deemed too closely aligned with those of the Nazis and he suffered a large drop in popularity. His death in 1950 from cancer
went almost entirely unreported, despite his previously broad readership and influence.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
historian, journalist, racial anthropologist, eugenicist
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
, political theorist and anti-immigration advocate who wrote a number of books which are cited by historians as prominent examples of early 20th-century scientific racism
Scientific racism
Scientific racism is the use of scientific techniques and hypotheses to sanction the belief in racial superiority or racism.This is not the same as using scientific findings and the scientific method to investigate differences among the humans and argue that there are races...
.
Biography
Stoddard was born in Brookline, MassachusettsBrookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
in 1883. He attended Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
, graduating magna cum laude in 1905, and studied Law at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
until 1908. Stoddard received a Ph.D. in History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1914. He published many racialist books on what he saw as the peril of immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
, his most famous being The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy , by Lothrop Stoddard, postulates the collapse of white world empire, and of colonialism, because of the population growth among colored peoples...
in 1920. In this book he presented a view of the world situation pertaining to race focusing concern on the coming population explosion among the "colored" peoples of the world and the way in which "white world-supremacy" was being lessened in the wake of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the collapse of colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
.
Madison Grant
Madison Grant was an American lawyer, historian and physical anthropologist, known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist...
(see The Passing of the Great Race
The Passing of the Great Race
The Passing of The Great Race; or, The racial basis of European history was an influential book of scientific racism written by the American eugenicist, lawyer, and amateur anthropologist Madison Grant in 1916. The book was largely ignored when it first appeared but went through several revisions...
), Stoddard divided the white race into three main divisions: Nordic, Alpine, and Mediterranean. He considered all three to be of good stock, and far above the quality of the colored races, but argued that the Nordic was the greatest of the three and needed to be preserved by way of eugenics. Unlike Grant, Stoddard was less concerned with which varieties of European
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
people were superior to others (Nordic theory
Nordic theory
The Nordic race is one of the racial subcategories into which the Caucasian race was divided by anthropologists in the first half of the 20th century...
), but was more concerned with what he called "bi-racialism," seeing the world as being composed of simply "colored" and "white" races. In the years after the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
and World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Grant's racial theory would fall out of favor in the U.S. in favor of a model closer to Stoddard's. (Guterl 2004)
Stoddard's theories would help depopularize Grant's Nordicism among western racialists in favor of the beliefs known as "Pan-Aryanism" (Aryanism was the belief in a superior white European race). The post-World War II White nationalist movement would embrace Pan-Aryanism, as it incorporated all whites into a supposed superior race rather than just Northern Europe
Northern Europe
Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...
ans.
Some predictions made in The Rising Tide of Color were accurate, while other were not. Accurate ones — not all of which were original to Stoddard or predicated on white supremacy — include Japan's rise as a major power; a war between Japan and the USA; a second war in Europe; the overthrowing of European colonial empires in Africa and Asia; the mass migration of non-white peoples to white countries; and the rise of Islam as a threat to the West because of Muslim religious fanaticism (Stoddard was an Islamic scholar and published the book The New World of Islam in 1921).
An allusion to the book occurs in F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
's The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
. Tom Buchanan, the husband of Daisy Buchanan, the novel's principal woman character, is reading a book titled The Rise of the Colored Empires by "this man Goddard." Throughout The Great Gatsby, Tom confusedly espouses Goddard's racial theories; the narrator calls Tom's focus on Goddard's ideas "pathetic."
Stoddard was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Birth Control League
American Birth Control League
The American Birth Control League was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921 at the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City. The League was incorporated under the laws of New York State on April 5, 1922. Its headquarters were located at 104 Fifth Avenue, New York City from 1921–30 and...
, a forerunner to Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
by Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American sex educator, nurse, and birth control activist. Sanger coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood...
. He was also a member of the American Historical Association, the American Political Science Association, and the Academy of Political Science. Stoddard was a lifelong Unitarian and Republican. During his lifetime, he engaged W. E. B. Du Bois in debate on white supremacy and its assertion of the natural inferiority of "colored" races.
In The Revolt Against Civilization (1922) he put forward the theory that civilization places a growing burden on individuals, leading to a growing underclass of individuals who cannot keep up, and a 'ground-swell of revolt'. Stoddard advocated immigration restriction and birth control legislation in order to reduce the numbers of the underclass while promoting the growth of the middle and upper classes. He believed social progress was impossible unless it was guided by a "neo-aristocracy" made up of the most capable individuals and reconciled with the findings of science rather than based on abstract idealism and egalitarianism.
After the passing of the Immigration Act of 1924
Immigration Act of 1924
The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, and Asian Exclusion Act , was a United States federal law that limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already...
, which severely limited immigration from southern and eastern Europe, Stoddard urged for white unity and the assimilation of the immigrants in his book Reforging America. Unlike Madison Grant
Madison Grant
Madison Grant was an American lawyer, historian and physical anthropologist, known primarily for his work as a eugenicist and conservationist...
and others, who only concerned themselves with keeping America racially "Nordic," Stoddard argued the non-Nordic white peoples who were now in the country needed to be assimilated/Americanized, and believed the country could continue to function so long as it was mostly "white" and retained its Nordic, Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
core. Stoddard argued that there would be a coming racial struggle between "white" civilization and the "colored" world, and believed animosity and infighting between white ethnic groups and nationalities had to be diminished if the white race was to survive; as such he was an avid pacifist and was staunchly opposed to both World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Stoddard authored over two dozen works, most related to race and civilization, echoing the themes of his previous works about the dangers of "colored" peoples against "white" civilization. He was also an enthusiastic stamp collector.
World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he spent 4 months as a journalist for the North American Newspaper Alliance
North American Newspaper Alliance
The North American Newspaper Alliance was a large newspaper syndicate that flourished between 1922 and 1980.Founded by John Neville Wheeler, NANA employed some of the most noted writing talents of its time, including Grantland Rice, Joseph Alsop, Michael Stern, Lothrop Stoddard, Dorothy Thompson,...
in Nazi Germany. He wrote Into the Darkness (1940) about his experiences there. Among other events, the book describes interviews with such figures as Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, Robert Ley
Robert Ley
Robert Ley was a Nazi politician and head of the German Labour Front from 1933 to 1945. He committed suicide while awaiting trial for war crimes.- Early life :...
and Fritz Sauckel
Fritz Sauckel
Ernst Friedrich Christoph "Fritz" Sauckel was a Nazi war criminal, who organized the systematic enslavement of millions from lands occupied by Nazi Germany...
He got preferential treatment by Nazi officials compared to other journalists. For example the Propaganda Ministry insisted that NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Max Jordan
Max Jordan
Max Jordan was a pioneering radio journalist for the NBC network in Europe in the 1930s. He later became a Benedictine monk.He was born around 1895 in Europe. He got a PhD in Religious Philosophy...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's William Shirer use Stoddard to interview the captain of the Bremen
SS Bremen (1929)
The SS Bremen was a German-built ocean liner constructed for the Norddeutscher Lloyd line to work the transatlantic sea route. The Bremen was notable for her bulbous bow construction, high-speed engines, and low, streamlined profile. At the time of her construction, she and her sister ship were...
.
In The Rising Tide of Color Stoddard blasted the ethnic supremacism
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to believe that one's ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and that all other groups are measured in relation to one's own. The ethnocentric individual will judge other groups relative to his or her own particular ethnic group or culture, especially with...
of the Germans, blaming the "Teutonic imperialists" for the outbreak of the First World War. He opposed what he saw as the disuniting of White/European peoples through intense nationalism and infighting.
Between 1939 and 1940, Stoddard stayed for several months in Germany, later publishing a memoir on his experiences there titled Into the Darkness. One day he visited the Hereditary Health Supreme Court in Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
, an appeals court that decided whether people would be forcibly sterilized. After having observed several dysgenics trials at the court, Stoddard stated that the eugenics legislation of Nazi Germany was "being administered with strict regard for its provisions and that, if anything, judgments were almost too conservative", and that the law was "weeding out the worst strains in the Germanic stock in a scientific and truly humanitarian way". Goddard was taken aback by the forthrightness of the Nazis' anti-Jewish views, foreseeing that the "Jewish problem" would soon be settled "by the physical elimination of the Jews themselves from the Third Reich".
After World War II, Stoddard's theories were deemed too closely aligned with those of the Nazis and he suffered a large drop in popularity. His death in 1950 from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
went almost entirely unreported, despite his previously broad readership and influence.
Partial bibliography
- The French Revolution in San Domingo. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1914.
- Present-day Europe, its National States of Mind. New York: The Century Co., 1917.
- Stakes of the War. New York: The Century Co., 1918.
- The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920. ISBN 4-87187-849-X
- The New World of Islam. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921.
- The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under Man. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922.
- Racial Realities in Europe. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924.
- Social Classes in Post-War Europe. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.
- Scientific Humanism. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926.
- Re-forging America: The Story of Our Nationhood. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927.
- The Story of Youth. New York: Cosmopolitan book corporation, 1928.
- Luck, Your Silent Partner. New York: H. Liveright, 1929.
- Master of Manhattan, the life of Richard Croker. Londton: Longmans, Green and Co., 1931.
- Europe and Our Money. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1932
- Lonely America. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, and Co., 1932.
- Clashing Tides of Color. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935.
- Into the Darkness: Nazi Germany Today. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, inc., 1940.
Works online
- The French Revolution in San Domingo (1914) via Google Books
- The New World of Islam (1921)
- The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy (1922 edn.) via Google Books
- The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man (1922) via Google Books; also available at: http://users.mo-net.com/mlindste/revltciv.html
- Into the Darkness (1940)
- as promoted in New York Tribune (Nov 2 1922)