Lothrop Stoddard

Lothrop Stoddard (June 29, 1883–May 1, 1950), born Theodore Lothrop Stoddard, was an American political theorist, eugenicist, and anti-immigration advocate who wrote a number of prominent books of early 20th-century scientific racism.

Biography

Stoddard was born in Brookline, Massachusetts 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, and was also an avid stamp collector. He published many unashamedly racist 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.

In his book, Stoddard detailed how the "yellow" nations of Asia presented a very dangerous threat to White Supremacy, as the Chinese and Japanese were the only colored races not ruled by whites at the time. He documented the imperialist ambitions of Japan, the alarming population growth of China, and how the yellows represented the only race that could challenge whites in terms of technological advancement. Stoddard also warned that Muslims, most of whom belonged to the "brown" races, may also be a threat to white dominance because of their religious fanaticism. Stoddard considered World War I to be the turning point in history, as the white nations fought amongst themselves while their colored slaves began to remove their shackles.

Unlike his mentor Madison 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 black 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 racial theories would help depopularize Grant's Nordicism and usher in a new kind of racial thinking, which would later be called "Pan-Aryanism" (Aryanism was the belief in a superior white European race). The post-World War II White Supremacist movement would embrace Pan-Aryanism, as it incorporated all whites into a supposed superior race rather than just Northern Europeans.

Stoddard was appointed to the Board of Directors of the American Birth Control League, a forerunner to Planned Parenthood by Margaret Sanger.

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 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. During World War II he also wrote Into the Darkness (1940), about the effect of war on Nazi Germany.

After World War II, Stoddard's theories were judged as too closely aligned with those of the Nazis and he suffered a large drop in popularity. (Guterl 2004) His death in 1950 from cancer went almost entirely unreported, despite his previously broad readership and influence. (Fant 2000)

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.
The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920.
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.
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.
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 Rising Tide of Color (1920)
The Revolt Against Civilization (1922)
Into the Darkness (1940)

References

Guterl, Matthew Pratt. 2004. The Color of Race in America, 1900-1940. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Fant, Jr. Gene C. (2000) "Stoddard, Lothrop", American National Biography Online.

Modern reviews

"Stoddard Rediscovered" from the anti-immigration website VDARE.
"A Warning from the Past" from the controversial magazine American Renaissance.
Review of Into the Darkness by the Institute for Historical Review, an organization best known for their advocacy of Holocaust denial.

1883 births | 1950 deaths | American eugenicists | Race and intelligence controversy