Arthur de Gobineau

[[File:Arthur de Gobineau.jpg|upright|thumb||165px|Arthur de Gobineau scratching his ear.]]{{race|1}}
'''Joseph Arthur, Comte de Gobineau''' {{lived|1815|1882}} was a [[French]] [[Aristocracy|aristocrat]], writer and diplomat who [[PIDOOMA|invented]] the [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] concept of the [[Aryan]] race, one of the main concepts of [[racism]] and [[white supremacy]].<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/racehistoryofmod00snyd#page/114/mode/2up ''Race — A history of Modern Ethnic Theories] by Louis L. Snyder (1939) Longmans, Green and Co. Chapter 7: Gobinism: The "Essay on the Inequality of Human Races".</ref>

==Life and work==
de Gobineau was born into an aristocratic French family on 14 July 1816. His father was a staunch royalist and supporter of the Bourbon [[royal]] family, which had gotten him in trouble during the reign of [[Napoleon]].<ref name=schemann>[https://archive.org/details/gobineaueinebiog02scheuoft/page/n5/mode/2up ''Gobineau. Eine Biographie'': Zweiter Band] by Ludwig Schemann (1916) Karl J. Trübner.</ref>{{rp|15}} His mother was a descendant of landed gentry and creoles from the Caribbean. She was also a [[fraud]]ster, which meant that the young Arthur was often on the run with his mother. When he was reunited with his father, he received a formal education which destined him for the career of a public official. 

Yet after failing to enter a military career, de Gobineau decided to become a writer and [[journalist]] in Paris. At first he lived off the money of a rich uncle, but when he was deprived of this income, he attempted to finance himself through articles for the ultra-royalist press and poetry. Success finally came when he joined an elitist art group and got to publish several articles on foreign policy. This additional income allowed him to publish his more ambitious literary projects. 

When the [[revolution]] of 1848 took place around him, de Gobineau was deeply disgusted by the uprising and wrote his first racist poem, titled "Manfredine",<ref name=schemann/>{{rp|247}} which praised a fictional countess, a descendant of the Germanic god [[Norse mythology#Odin|Odin]], who saved the [[Italian]] city of Naples from its enemies. 

Shortly thereafter de Gobineau was employed as a diplomat through his friend, the [[liberal]] {{wpl|Alexis de Tocqueville||.}} Although the job meant that he had to work for what he believed to be the despicable [[republic]] that reigned after the revolution, de Gobineau accepted the position. He was sent on his first diplomatic mission to [[Switzerland]], which was so dull that it allowed him to write his racist masterpiece, ''An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races'' (French: ''Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines'').<ref name=inequality>[https://archive.org/details/inequalityofhuma00gobi/page/n5/mode/2up ''The inequality of human races''] by Arthur de Gobineau, translated by Adrian Collins (1915) William Heinemann.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/essaisurlingal01gobiuoft/page/n5/mode/2up ''Essai sur l'Inégalité des Races Humaines'': Volume 1] by Le Comte de Gobineau (1884) Firmin-Didot. Second edition.</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/essaisurlingal02gobi/page/n5/mode/2up ''Essai sur l'Inégalité des Races Humaines'': Volume 2] by Le Comte de Gobineau (1884) Firmin-Didot. Second edition.</ref> Therein he postulated that there are three fundamentally different human races&nbsp;— "black", "yellow" and "white". 

While he had disdain for the "black" race, his hatred was mostly directed towards the "yellow" race, which aligned with the anti-[[Chinese]] fashion of his time and place. Of course, he saw the "white" race as the purest and most noble race. Yet in order to distinguish himself and his aristocratic friends from the plebs, he [[Hypothesis|hypothesized]] an "Aryan" race that was the purest expression of the "white" race, a noble Germanic warrior race which conquered [[Europe]] in prehistoric times and was thus destined to rule over all others. Of course, de Gobineau himself claimed to be a direct descendant of those "Aryans".<ref name=inequality/>

Afterwards, de Gobineau led the life of a diplomatic envoy, travelling to [[Greece]], [[Persia]] and [[Brazil]], and founding a family. He wrote extensively about his travels and thus found success as a writer, while his "Essay" was largely ignored at the time. He befriended local politicians, most notably Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, but his low position in the diplomatic service meant that he had little influence on his missions and their destinations. 

Frustrated, he resigned and led an unstable life on the road, which led to an unexpected meeting with the [[German]] composer [[Richard Wagner]] in Rome. Wagner was deeply impressed with de Gobineau's "Essay" and de Gobineau was likewise impressed by Wagner's Germanic musical fantasies.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150919044942/http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/asiatische-novellen-4482/7 ''Asiatische Novellen'': Kapitel 7] by Arthur de Gobineau (1924) via ''Der Spiegel'' (archived from September 19, 2015).</ref> He became a part of Wagner's Bayreuth circle and Wagner arranged for a translation of the "Essay" that  was published in the ''Bayreuther Blätter'', official newspaper of Wagner's Bayreuth festival. 

Yet de Gobineau would be denied further success. [[Radical]]ized by the encounter with Wagner, de Gobineau started to refer to normal folk as ''boue'' (French for mud) and wrote an historic missive by the name of "Histoire d'Ottar-Jarl" which aimed to prove his own descent from Odin.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/histoiredottarj01gobigoog/page/n9/mode/2up ''Histoire d'Ottar Jarl, Pirate Norvégien, Conquérant du pays de Bray, en Normandie, et de sa Descendance''] by Le Comte de Gobineau (1879) Didier et cie.</ref> When tension between de Gobineau and Wagner arose because de Gobineau did not share Wagner's radical [[antisemitism]], de Gobineau broke off his connection.<ref>[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01916599.2012.724549 Renan versus Gobineau: Semitism and Antisemitism, Ancient Races and Modern Liberal Nations] by Paul Lawrence Rose (2013) ''History of European Ideas'' 39(4):528-540. doi:10.1080/01916599.2012.724549.</ref> 

Alone, sick and almost blind, he travelled to Turin on a whim. He died there of a stroke on 13<sup>th</sup> October 1882 and was buried in the city. This allowed the Italian fascists under [[Benito Mussolini]] to mount a plaque on his grave which read: ''Il tempo e gli eventi ne esaltano la figura di presago pensatore'' ("Time and events exalt the guise of a prophetic thinker").{{cn}}

==Relation with Nazism==
Although de Gobineau did not live long enough to see the rise of [[Nazism]], he had a notable influence. Though himself not a fervent racist, de Gobineau rejected [[democracy]] and was always a staunch royalist during all his life.<ref>[http://classiques.uqac.ca/classiques/gobineau/essai_inegalite_races/inegalite_hubert_juin.html Un grand poète romantique] by Hubert Juin (October 30, 2005) ''Université du Québec à Chicoutimi''.</ref>

Cosima Wagner, widow of Richard Wagner, was an avid promoter of de Gobineau's work. Due to her influence as unofficial editor for the ''Bayreuther Blätter'', she ensured that his work was always present in the newspaper. During 1881 and 1937, more than sixty articles were published about de Gobineau. Cosima Wagner also wrote his eulogy in 1882. In 1894 members of the Bayreuth Circle founded a "Gobineau Society" and its newsletters were enclosed in the ''Bayreuther Blätter''.<ref>[https://books.google.de/books?id=8RzoBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA63&ots=WlxGXcTzg2&dq=%22de%20gobineau%22%20%22bayreuther%20bl%C3%A4tter%22&hl=de&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q=%22de%20gobineau%22%20%22bayreuther%20bl%C3%A4tter%22&f=false Bayreuther Blätter (1879-1938)] by Wolfram Selig (2013) In: ''Handbuch des Antisemitismus: Judenfeindschaft in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', Band 6. Walter De Gruyter. ISBN 3110305356. Pages 61-63.</ref> 

One of the members of the "Gobineau Society" was [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], son-in-law of Richard Wagner, who built upon de Gobineau's ideas in his racist, pan-Germanic and "völkisch" key work "The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century". Chamberlain expanded on the concept of the Aryan race and aimed to establish that the "Teutons" or Germans were the greatest of the Aryans.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/FoundationsOfThe19thCentury ''Foundations of the Nineteenth Century''] by Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1910) John Lane Company.</ref>  When Chamberlain died in 1927, his funeral was attended by [[Alfred Rosenberg]], chief ideologue of Nazism, and [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref> Shirer, William L.. Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, Simon & Schuster, 1990. Page 109. ISBN: 9780671728687</ref>

==Anténor Firmin==
[[File:Antenor Firmin.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Firmin in 1889]]
Anténor Firmin was a anthropologist and a diplomat from [[Haiti]]. While stationed in France as a diplomat, he was invited to join the Société d’Anthropologie de Paris in 1884. He attended meetings as a member, but did not feel that he fit in with the prevailing racism of the society. Rather than debating directly with the French membership, he instead wrote a 662-page rebuttal to de Gobineau's ''Essai sur l'Inégalité des Races Humaines'', titled ''De l'Égalité des Races Humaines: Anthropologie Positive''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/Antnor1885Bnf30437548r/page/n3/mode/2up ''De l'Égalité des Races Humaines: Anthropologie Positive''] by A. Firmin (1885) Librairie Cotillon.</ref> Although published in Paris, the book languished in obscurity except within Haiti until an English translation was finally made in 2000.<ref>''The Equality of the Human Race: Positivist Anthropology'' by Anténor Firmin, translated by Asselin Charles (2000) University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252071026.</ref> In contrast to de Gobineau's book, Firmin's debunking was a reasoned and evidence-based.<ref>[https://www.sciencenews.org/article/antenor-firmin-anthropology-racism-haiti Anténor Firmin challenged anthropology’s racist roots 150 years ago: The Haitian scholar showed that science didn’t support white supremacy] by Sujata Gupta (May 17, 2023 at 11:00 am) ''Science News''.</ref><ref>[https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/day-linguistics-history-ant%C3%A9nor-firmin-1850%E2%80%931911 This Day in Linguistics History: Anténor Firmin (1850–1911)] by Margaret Thomas, ''Linguistic Society of America''.</ref>

==External links==
*Works of Arthur de Gobineau in [[wikisource:fr:Auteur:Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau|French]] and [[wikisource:en:Author:Arthur de Gobineau|English]] on Wikisource
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==References==
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[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Declinists]]
[[Category:France]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience promoters]]
[[Category:Racists]]

Categories: Authors, Declinists, France, Journalists, Pseudoscience promoters, Racists