This lecture discusses British thought on race and racial differences in
the latter phases of empire from the 1890s to the early 1960s. It
focuses on the role of racial ideas in British society and politics and
looks at the decline in Victorian ideas of white Anglo-Saxon racial
solidarity. The impact of anthropology is shown to have had a major role
in shifting the focus on race in British ruling class circles from a
classical and humanistic imperialism towards a more objective study of
ethnic and cultural groups by the 1930s and 1940s. As the empire turned
into a commonwealth, liberal ideas on race relations helped shape the
post-war rise of 'race relations' sociology. Drawing on extensive
government documents, private papers, newspapers, magazines and
interviews this book breaks new ground in the analysis of racial
discourse in twentieth-century British politics and the changing
conception of race amongst anthropologists, sociologists and the
professional intelligentsia.
- Teacher: MOURAD ATY