Modern Intellectual History (Volume 08, Issue 01, April 2011)

268 Pages·2011·2.72 MB·English

by  Charles Capper

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vol. 8 | no. 1 | april 2011 | issn 1479–2443
Modern Intellectual History
M
o
d
e
r
n modern
1–2 A Note from the Editors
I
n
Articles
t
3–29 “Almost a Separate Race”: Racial Thought and the Idea of Europe in British e
Encyclopedias and Histories, 1771–1830 ll intellectual
e
PAUL STOCK
c
t
31–59 Madame Guizot and Monsieur Guizot: Domestic Pedagogy and the Post-Revolutionary u
Order in France, 1807–1830 a
ROBIN BATES l history
H
61–90 Transcending Babel in the Cultural Translation of Friedrich Rückert (1788–1866)
i
TUSKA BENES s
t
o
91–125 Canonizing Dewey: Columbia Naturalism, Logical Empiricism, and the Idea of
r
American Philosophy y
ANDREW JEWETT
Essay
127–146 Beyond “Academicization”: The Postwar American University v
o
and Intellectual History
l
RICHARD F. TEICHGRAEBER III .

8
Forum: The Idea of Sustainability | MH
147–151 Introduction n
EMMA ROTHSCHILD o
.

153–170 The Invention of Sustainability 1

PAUL WARDE |
a I
171–191 Environmental, Economic, and Moral Dimensions of Sustainability p
in the Petroleum Industry in Austrian Galicia r
i
ALISON FRANK l

2
193–212 Maintaining (Environmental) Capital Intact 0
EMMA ROTHSCHILD 11
Review Essays
213–225 The Subject and the Work of Difference: Gender, Sexuality, and Intellectual History
SANDRINE SANOS
227–236 German Post-Darwinian Biology Reassessed
FREDERICK GREGORY
237–251 Historicizing American Travel, at Home and Abroad
LESLIE BUTLER
253–263 Ayn Rand and American Conservatism in the Cold War Era
PATRICK ALLITT
Cambridge Journals Online
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14792443_8-1.qxd:1479–2443_8-1 2/28/11 7:32 PM Page 2
modern intellectual history
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modern intellectual history
contents
pp1–2 ANotefromtheEditors
Articles
pp3–29 “AlmostaSeparateRace”:RacialThoughtandtheIdea
ofEuropeinBritishEncyclopediasandHistories,
1771–1830
paulstock
pp31–59 MadameGuizotandMonsieurGuizot:DomesticPedagogy
andthePost-RevolutionaryOrderinFrance,1807–1830
robinbates
pp61–90 TranscendingBabelintheCulturalTranslationofFriedrich
Ru¨ckert(1788–1866)
tuskabenes
pp91–125 CanonizingDewey:ColumbiaNaturalism,LogicalEmpiricism,
andtheIdeaofAmericanPhilosophy
andrewjewett
Essay
pp127–146 Beyond“Academicization”:ThePostwarAmericanUniversity
andIntellectualHistory
richardf.teichgraeberiii
Forum:TheIdeaofSustainability
pp147–151 Introduction
emmarothschild
pp153–170 TheInventionofSustainability
paulwarde
pp171–191 Environmental,Economic,andMoralDimensionsof
SustainabilityinthePetroleumIndustryinAustrian
Galicia
alisonfrank
pp193–212 Maintaining(Environmental)CapitalIntact
emmarothschild
ReviewEssays
pp213–225 TheSubjectandtheWorkofDifference:Gender,Sexuality,and
IntellectualHistory
sandrinesanos
pp227–236 GermanPost-DarwinianBiologyReassessed
frederickgregory
pp237–251 HistoricizingAmericanTravel,atHomeandAbroad
lesliebutler
pp253–263 AynRandandAmericanConservatismintheColdWarEra
patrickallitt
ModernIntellectualHistory,8,1(2011),pp.1–2 (cid:2)C CambridgeUniversityPress2011
doi:10.1017/S1479244311000023
a note from the editors
RoughlyeightyearsagowemetinManhattanwithNickPhillipsontoplana
newjournaltobelaunchedbyCambridgeUniversityPress.TwoAmericanswho
knew each and had worked together well, and who were largely in agreement
aboutwhatMIHshouldaccomplish.WewerewellawareofthequalityofNick’s
scholarship, of course, and had heard through the transatlantic grapevine that
hewasagreatcolleague.Still,weweremorethanalittleapprehensive.Whatif
Nickhadatotallydifferentideaofthejournal?Whatifthepersonalchemistry
didn’t work? Within an hour of our discussion we knew that we had “lucked
out”onbothcounts.ReadersfamiliarwithNick’sworkwillsurelyagreethathe
hasoneofthesharpestandmostimaginativemindsinthediscipline,andthat
hehadbeencombiningintellectualhistorywithsocialandculturalhistorywell
beforehistoriansstartedmakingsuchafussaboutit.Manhattanwastheright
place to meet. An urban gentleman (in the best of senses), Nick is a gourmet
ofawesomerange(everythingfromhautecuisinetodelifood)andasparkling
conversationalistandraconteur.Lunchordinnerwithhimisanevent.Noone
takesmorecare,orpleasure,inorderingagoodbottleofwine.Thesubjectof
conversation need not be history; he is a lover of art and music, and has been
veryactiveintheculturalandciviclifeofEdinburgh,wherehewasacelebrated
teacherattheuniversityfrom1965to2004.
Nick is now retiring from his editorial responsibilities. The timing is
extraordinary.Heisnotleavinginawakeofpastglories;he’sattheverypeakofhis
career.Roughlythirtyyearsago,Nickburstonthescene—hehasawayofbursting
onthescene—asoneoftheleadingscholarsoftheScottishEnlightenment.His
firsttwobooksleftnodoubtofhisversatility:anowindispensablemonographon
theScottishlegalprofessioninthelateeighteenthandearlynineteenthcenturies,
andanelegantintellectualbiographyofDavidHumeasahistorian.Atthesame
time,Nickplayedakeyroleinexplainingwhat“politesociability”meant,both
inpracticeandintheory;whytheuniversitiesandtheircitieswerethecenters
of the Enlightenment in Scotland; and how they shaped and were shaped by
it.Hemusthaveknownfromthebeginningthatallthiswouldculminateina
denselycontextualizedbiographyofAdamSmith(whosepaperswereburnedat
hisdeath).Itwillbe,hewouldtellus,“abiographywithoutsources.”ButNickisa
1
2 anotefromtheeditors
virtuosoatgettingsparesourcestoyieldeverylastbitoftheirhistoricalmeaning.
Thebook—AdamSmith:AnEnlightenedLife—appearedwithPenguininAugust
of 2010, and there is now an American edition by Yale University Press. It is a
mastercontributionbothtoEnlightenmentstudiesandtobiography.
OneofthechallengesinlaunchingMIHwastomakeitatrulytransatlantic
enterprise,andthatmeantgettingsubmissionsandbuildingareadershipinthe
UK.WithoutNickthejournalsimplywouldnothavebeenabletodothat.Itwas
notonlythatNickknewsomanypeople;hiswit,amiabilityandsheerkindness
madeitveryhardtoturnhimdown.ReaderswhohavebeeneditedbyNickknow
howgoodheisatediting.Hehasthepatience—andthegoodjudgment—towait
forapieceto“ripen”(oneofhisfavoritewords);hecoaxespeopleintomaking
theirprosemorelucidandmorereadable(jargonwasbanned);andheisquick
tospotakinkoravoidintheargumentorinthepresentation.Welearnedagreat
dealfromhim.
WewishNickallthebestinthecomingyears.
CharlesCapperandAnthonyLaVopa
ModernIntellectualHistory,8,1(2011),pp.3–29 (cid:2)C CambridgeUniversityPress2011
doi:10.1017/S1479244311000035
“almost a separate race”: racial
thought and the idea of europe
in british encyclopedias and
histories, 1771–1830
paulstock
DepartmentofInternationalHistory,LondonSchoolofEconomics
E-mail:[email protected]
ThisarticleexplorestheassociationbetweenracialthoughtandtheideaofEurope
in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. It begins by noting the
complexitiessurroundingtheword“race”inthisperiod,beforeconsideringwhether—
and on what grounds—contemporary race thinkers identify a “European race” or
“races”. This reveals important ambiguities and correlations between anatomical,
genealogicalandculturalunderstandingsofhumandifference.Theessaythendiscusses
how some of these ideas find expression in British encyclopedias, histories and
geographicalbooks.Inthisway,itshowshowracialideasaredisseminated,notjust
in dedicated volumes on anatomy and biological classification, but also in general
workswhichpurporttosummarizeandtransmitcontemporaryreceivedknowledge.
Thearticledrawsuponentrieson“Europe”ineveryBritishencyclopediacompleted
between1771and1830,aswellasnamedsourcetextsforthosearticles,tracinghowthe
word“Europe”wasusedandwhatracialconnotationsitcarried.Someentriesimply
that“European”iseitheraseparateraceentirely,orasubcategoryofasinglehuman
race. Others, however, reject the idea of a distinctive European people to identify
competing racial groups in Europe. These complexities reveal increasing interest in
thedelineationofEuropeanidentities,aninterestwhichemergespartlyfromlong-
standingeighteenth-centurydebatesaboutthecategorizationandcomprehensionof
humandifference.Inaddition,theyshowthediffusionof(contending)racialideasin
non-specialistmedia,foreshadowingthegrowingprominenceofracialthoughtinthe
laternineteenthcentury.
introduction
This essay explores the association between racial thought and the idea of
Europe in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. It begins by
noting the complexities surrounding the word “race” in this period, before
considering whether—and on what grounds—contemporary race thinkers
identify a “European race” or “races”. This reveals important ambiguities and
3
4 paulstock
correlations between anatomical, genealogical and cultural understandings of
human difference. The essay then discusses how some of these ideas find
expression in British encyclopedias, histories and geographical books. In this
way,itshowshowracialideasaredisseminated,notjustindedicatedvolumeson
anatomyandbiologicalclassification,butalsoingeneralworkswhichpurportto
summarizeandtransmitcontemporaryreceivedknowledge.1 Thearticledraws
uponentrieson“Europe”ineveryBritishencyclopediacompletedbetween1771
and1830,aswellasnamedsourcetextsforthosearticles,tracinghowtheword
“Europe”wasusedandwhatracialconnotationsitcarried.Someentriesimply
that “European” is either a separate race entirely, or a subcategory of a single
human race. Others, however, reject the idea of a distinctive European people
in order to identify competing racial groups in Europe. These complexities
reveal increasing interest in the delineation of European identities, an interest
whichemergespartlyfromlong-standingeighteenth-centurydebatesaboutthe
categorizationandcomprehensionofhumandifference.Inaddition,theyshow
thediffusionof(contending)racialideasinnon-specialistmedia,foreshadowing
thegrowingprominenceofracialthoughtinthelaternineteenthcentury.
theconceptof“race”
Totalkof“race”inthisperiodisitselfcomplexandcontroversial,principally
becausethetermhadanumberofcomplexmeaningsintheeighteenthandearly
nineteenthcenturies.AccordingtoNicholasHudson,itmostcommonlyreferred
to“familylines,lineage,extraction...orbreedsofanimal”,andthushadboth
dynastic and classificatory connotations.2 “Races”—that is, lines of descent or
groupsofpeoples—couldbe“identifiedandsignifiedthroughreligion,custom,
language, climate aesthetics and historical time, as much as physiognomy and
skincolour”.Forthisreason,conceptionsof“race”wereintertwinedwithideas
about politics and nation: they “occupied overlapping if not identical cultural
andpoliticalterrains...usedtodistinguishgroupsbylineage,commondescent
ororiginandtoidentifypolitical,socialandterritorialparticularity”.3 Inother
words,discussionabout“race”encompassedvariousinterrelatedunderstandings
1 ForanthologiesofsuchspecialistworksfromthisperiodseeH.F.Augstein,ed.,Race:The
OriginsofanIdea(Bristol,1996);EmanuelChudwukiEze,ed.,RaceandEnlightenment:
A Reader (Oxford, 1997); Peter Kitson and Debbie Lee, eds., Slavery, Abolition and
Emancipation:WritingsintheBritishRomanticPeriod,vol.8,TheoriesofRace,ed.Peter
Kitson(London,1999)
2 Nicholas Hudson, “From ‘Nation’ to ‘Race’: The Origin of Racial Classification in
Eighteenth-CenturyThought”,Eighteenth-CenturyStudies29/3(1996),247.
3 KathleenWilson,TheIslandRace:Englishness,EmpireandGenderintheEighteenthCentury
(LondonandNewYork,2003),11–12,55.
“almostaseparaterace” 5
ofhumandifference:physicalappearance,disposition,environmentalinfluences,
descentororigins,religion,culturalmannerisms,andpoliticalsystems.Forthis
reason,RoxannWheelerspeaksofthe“fluidarticulationofhumanvariety”and
the“elasticityofrace”intheeighteenthcentury.Inparticular,shewarnsagainst
anachronisticandessentialistunderstandingsof“race”asasetoffixedphysical
characteristics.4 The word “ethnic”, for instance, originally meant “heathen,
ungodly, irreligious”, which emphasizes the importance of religious belief and
socialpracticeindistinguishingandcategorizingdifferentpeoples.5
Eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century thinkers were thus preoccupied
by “the tenuous ... opposition between nature and society, the innate and
the acquired”, especially the related problems of how supposedly “natural”
characteristicscouldchange,andhowacquiredbehavioursandqualitiescould
come to seem innate. In this sense, the “poles of an essentialised Nature
and a capricious Environment” competed and overlapped with one another:
ideas about manners and society were ambiguously interconnected with
“absolutist notions” of inheritance and non-acquired “essence”.6 Eighteenth-
centuryinvestigationsofhumandifference“indicatethatideasabout“culture”
and “biology” do not occupy separate domains, and that they develop in
relationtooneanother.7 Enquiriesintoskincolour,forinstance,hingedonthe
relationshipbetweeninhabitants’temperament,dispositionandbodilyhumours,
and external factors such as climate, commerce and societal development. In
thisway,environment,mentalfacultiesandbodilyappearancewerecoupledin
a “symbiotic relationship”.8 Indeed, given its close relationship with notions
of “lineage” and “bloodline”, the language of “race” could simultaneously
connote class, dynasty and societal organization, as well as biological
4 RoxannWheeler,TheComplexionofRace:CategoriesofDifferenceinEighteenth-Century
BritishCulture(Philadelphia,2000),7,9–10.GeorgeStockingarguesthatracedidnot
commonlydesignate“physicalentitiesunchangedsincethebeginningofrecordedtime”
untilafterthepublicationofRobertKnox’sTheRacesofMen(1850).SeehisVictorian
Anthropology(NewYork,1987),65.
5 ColinKidd,BritishIdentitiesbeforeNationalism:EthnicityandNationhoodintheAtlantic
World,1600–1800(Cambridge,1999),34,287.Kidddrawsuponthedefinitionsof“ethnick”
in the Glossographia (1656) and Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (1755), though the word
meant “pagan” as early as the 1470s. See Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edn (Oxford,
1989),“ethnic”,sense1.
6 Wilson,TheIslandRace,6–8.
7 AniaLoombaandJonathanBurton,Introduction,inidem,eds.,RaceinEarlyModern
England:ADocumentaryCompanion(NewYork,2007),8,22–3.
8 Wheeler,TheComplexionofRace,2–5,22–4
6 paulstock
“blood ties” and “common substance” or essence inherited through physical
relations.9
Oftenthesevariableunderstandingsofhumandifferencecoexistinthesame
text.InTheSpiritoftheLaws,forinstance,Montesquieuusestheword“race”to
maketechnicaldistinctionsbetweensocialsystemsacrossdifferentperiods.The
“firstrace”referstothoseFrankswhofollowedSalicandRomanlaw:
Lepaysqu’onappelleaujourd’huilaFrance,futgouverne´danslapremie`reraceparlaloi
Romaine,oulecodeThe´odosien,&parlesdiversesloixdesbarbaresquiyhabitoient...
laloiSaliquee´toite´tabliepourlesFrancs,&lecodeThe´odosienpourlesRomains.
thecountrythattodayonecallsFrancewasgovernedunderthefirstracebyRomanlaw,
ortheTheodosiancode,andbythevariouslawsofthebarbarianswholivedthere...the
SalicLawwasestablishedfortheFranksandtheTheodosiancodefortheRomans.
The “second race” allowed these semi-centralized legal structures to decline
amidst the rise of fiefdoms: “Les loix Saliques, Bouguignonnes & Wisigothes
furent donc extreˆmement ne´glige´es a` la fin de la seconde race” (The Salic,
Burgundian and Visigothic laws were therefore extremely neglected at the end
of the second race).10 Montesquieu thus uses “race” in an administrative and
legal sense, though the term also carries dynastic connotations and hence the
implicationsof“lineage”and“(royal)blood”:themostrecentEnglishtranslators
render“firstrace”as“Merovingian”and“secondrace”as“Carolingian”inorder
toforegroundtheseundertones.11 Indeed,indistinguishingbetweenpeoples—
forexample,FranksandRomans—whoaresubjecttodifferentlawsaccordingto
apparentprovenance,Montesquieuidentifieshumangroupsbaseduponreputed
“descent”.ElsewhereinTheSpiritoftheLaws,heclassifiespeoplesaccordingto
physicalcharacteristics,whichinturnindicatestheirinnate“nature”:
Ceuxdontils’agitsontnoirsdepuislespiedsjusqu’a`lateˆte&ilsontlenezsie´crase´qu’il
estpresqu’impossibledelesplaindre...Ilestsinatureldepenser,quec’estlacouleurqui
constituel’essencedel’humanite´...Ilestimpossiblequenoussupposionquecesgensla`
soientdeshommes.
9 ElizabethColwill,“Sex,SavageryandSlaveryintheShapingoftheFrenchBodyPolitic”,
in Sara E. Melzer and Kathryn Norberg, eds., From the Royal to the Republican Body:
IncorporatingthePoliticalinSeventeenth-andEighteenth-CenturyFrance(Berkeley,1998),
204.
10 Charles-LouisdeSecondat,BarondeMontesquieu,Del’espritdesloix,nouvelleedition,
aveclesdernierescorrections&illustrationsdel’auteur,2vols.(Edinburgh,1750),2:245,
254.Thetranslationsaremine.Forsimilarusesoftheword“race”seeibid.,1:421;2:400,
433,452,454,466.ForfurtheranalysisseeIvanHannaford,Race:TheHistoryofanIdeain
theWest(Washington,DC,1996),187–90,200–2.
11 SeeCharles-LouisdeSecondat,BarondeMontesquieu,TheSpiritoftheLaws,trans.Anne
M.Cohler,BasiaC.MillerandHaroldStone(Cambridge,1987),537.