I would note that Gobineau was playing to an audience of French aristocrats who saw themselves as descended from the Germanic Franks who conquered and ruled over the allegedly inferior Celtic Gauls and Latins who were there before them under Roman rule. Much of European aristocracy was ultimately descended from those Germanic "barbarians," to note the Roman perception of them. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Greg Nowell <GN842 at CNSVAX.Albany.Edu> To: lbo talk <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 3:30 PM Subject: Rosser & Gobineau
>Rosser is right, Gobineau, not Gobelin. Such was my
>laziness that I didn't even verify with the desk
>encyclopedia to my left or the book of writings itself,
>5 paces to my right. Ah well. A few sentences from
>the Petit Robert, as penance for my inaccuracy:
>
>Gobineau, count Joseph Arthur (1816-1882). French
>diplomat and writer, he served in Persia, Greece, and
>Brazil, wrote a number of works....In the
>Pleiades...appear three people, in the midst of a
>heroic and sentimental idyll, of different nationality
>and character, who have in common the feeling of being
>superior, of being "sons of kings" and who display
>their nobility by the independence of their spirits.
>His views on human nature were developed in his Essay
>on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853-1855) where
>he tried to establish on a physical, realistic basis
>the supposed superiority of the nordic, germanic race.
>His doctrine was used by pangermanists and by Hitler's
>national socialism.
>
>--
>Gregory P. Nowell
>Associate Professor
>Department of Political Science, Milne 100
>State University of New York
>135 Western Ave.
>Albany, New York 12222
>
>Fax 518-442-5298
>
>
>