Race and the Making of American Political Science

Race and the Making of American Political Science explores how changing scientific ideas about racial difference shaped the academic study of politics in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. It shows that scholars of politics defined and reoriented their field in response to the political imperatives of the racial order, as well as the vagaries of race science. The book argues that major political scientists understood racial difference to be a fundamental shaper of political life and wove popular and scientific ideas about race into their accounts of political belonging, progress, hierarchy, and democracy. It also highlights the powerful hold that these models of human difference and political life still exert on our political imagination today.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 216 pages
\n Publication date: 03 September 2021
\n Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
\n

Race and the Making of American Political Science delves into the profound impact of shifting scientific perspectives on racial difference on the development of American Political Science. Spanning from the late 19th century to the 1930s, scholars of politics engaged in a dynamic process of defining and reorienting their field in response to the political imperatives of the racial order both domestically and internationally, as well as the fluctuations of race science. During the Gilded Age, scholars who established the first university departments and journals sought to establish sovereignty and legitimacy by drawing upon a Teutonic germ of liberty, which they believed was planted in the New World by Anglo-Saxon settlers and nearly extinguished by the conflict over slavery. However, within a generation, Teutonism transformed into philosophical speculation, yet, it persisted as a fundamental notion among prominent political scientists throughout the 20th century. They intricately wove popular and scientific ideas about race into their accounts of political belonging, progress, change, hierarchy, democracy, and its justifications. Moreover, they closely monitored emerging developments in race science, recognizing its centrality to their core inquiries. By tracing this historical trajectory, Jessica Blatt offers a daring reinterpretation of the origins of U.S. political science, embedding it within broader processes of the coproduction of racial ideas, racial oppression, and political knowledge.

\n Weight: 340g\n
Dimension: 152 x 228 x 17 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780812225099\n \n