A REVIEW OF REVIEWS 



Of Madison Grant's 

 PASSING OF THE GREAT RACE 



IT IS now six years since the first 

 edition of Madison Grant's "Pass- 

 ing of the Great Race" attracted 

 the attention of the reading puhhc to 

 discussions centering about heredity, 

 and caused even at its inception, as 

 scientific books go, considerable of a 

 sensation. It was violently attacked. 

 It was heartily commended. 



Much of this controversy was evi- 

 dently emotional in its origin, and now 

 that the Great European War is a 

 thing of the past it is easy to see that 

 many of the hostile reviews were actu- 

 ated by a feeling that Madison Grant 

 was echoing the dangerous Germanic 

 theories of Gobineau. Nietzsche, and 

 Houston Stewart Chamberlain and was, 

 perhaps, hooting a little at the then 

 popular slogan : Make tJic World Safe 

 for Democracy. Some of the reviews 

 were evidently personal resentments 

 from individuals not belonging to the 

 so-called Great Race. Another class of 

 criticisms came from scientific men 

 who deplored the absence of all foot- 

 notes and specific references, and felt 

 that this book, even though it might be 

 essentially true, had been written in a 

 partisan spirit, and that many of the 

 detailed assertions could not be sub- 

 stantiated by research data. 



The present writer reviewed the 

 second edition in something of the lat- 

 ter spirit, on the whole favorably, in 

 Science, October 25th, 1918. Now that 

 a new edition has appeared giving very 

 complete references to authorities, it 

 is only fair to give the book another 

 review. It seems the references were 

 left out intentionally in order, as the 

 author told the present reviewer, "to 

 get people to read the book." "You 

 scientific men are too modest. You 



lumber up your books with references 

 to authorities. The reading public cares 

 nothing for the scientific names ; their 

 eyes and minds are confused by the 

 foot notes. They want to read directly 

 from their author." 



This seems to the reviewer to be 

 worth putting down in print in this, a 

 scientific journal, since all scientists 

 have to consider the art of presentation, 

 and naturally wish their researches to- 

 be known, at least to someone besides 

 themselves. Scientists enjoy foot notes, 

 the names mean everything to them ; 

 but ultimately scientific knowledge has 

 to be presented to the general public, 

 and it is through just such readable and 

 popular books as Mr. Grant's that this 

 matter is accomplished. 



The latest edition,^ seventh printing, 

 fourth edition, revised 1921, contains 

 263 pages of text and 176 pages of 

 documentary supplement, all the refer- 

 ences to authorities being placed in the 

 appendix. Mr. Grant does not intend 

 to lose any readers by stopping them 

 in the text. 



By taking the references one by one 

 and turning to the indicated page and 

 line the names of the authorities can be 

 filled in. The present reviewer has 

 done this for most of the book, writing 

 the names in pencil on the margin. It 

 appears that the major portion of the 

 text is supported on good structure of 

 researches and authoritative opinions. 



There are nevertheless a good many 

 assertions that appear exaggerated, and 

 are at least statements that cannot at 

 the present day be referred to any 

 exact investigations, simply because 

 mankind has been so tardy in recog- 

 nizing the importance of the "proper 

 studv of mankind," and has not much 



^Published b\' the Charles Scribners Sons. New York. Price $2.50 net. 



