“ALMOST A SEPARATE RACE”: RACIAL THOUGHT AND THE IDEA OF EUROPE IN BRITISH ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND HISTORIES, 1771–1830
Journal: Modern Intellectual History
Year: 2011

This article explores the association between racial thought and the idea of Europe in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain. It begins by noting the complexities surrounding the word “race” in this period, before considering whether—and on what grounds—contemporary race thinkers identify a “European race” or “races”. This reveals important ambiguities and correlations between anatomical, genealogical and cultural understandings of human difference. The essay then discusses how s