front cover of The Equality of Human Races
The Equality of Human Races
Positivist Anthropology
Anténor Firmin, Translated from the French by Asselin Charles. Introduction by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban
University of Illinois Press, 2000

Rediscovering an early scientific challenge to racism

This is the first paperback edition of the only English-language translation of the Haitian scholar Anténor Firmin's The Equality of the Human Races, a foundational text in critical anthropology first published in 1885 when anthropology was just emerging as a specialized field of study. Marginalized for its "radical" position that the human races were equal, Firmin's lucid and persuasive treatise was decades ahead of its time. Arguing that the equality of the races could be demonstrated through a positivist scientific approach, Firmin challenged racist writings and the dominant views of the day. Translated by Asselin Charles and framed by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban's substantial introduction, this rediscovered text is an important contribution to contemporary scholarship in anthropology, pan-African studies, and colonial and postcolonial studies.

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front cover of The Myth of Human Races
The Myth of Human Races
Alain F. Corcos
Michigan State University Press, 1997

The idea that human races exist is a socially constructed myth that has no grounding in science. Regardless of skin, hair, or eye color, stature or physiognomy, we are all of one species. Nonetheless, scientists, social scientists, and pseudo-scientists have, for three centuries, tried vainly to prove that distinctive and separate "races" of humanity exist. These protagonists of race theory have based their flawed research on one or more of five specious assumptions:
     - humanity can be classified into groups using identifiable physical characteristics,
     - human characteristics are transmitted "through the blood,"  
     - distinct human physical characteristics are inherited together, 
     - physical features can be linked to human behavior,
     - human groups or "races" are by their very nature unequal and, therefore, they can be ranked in order of intellectual, moral, and cultural superiority.  
     The Myth of Human Races systematically dispels these fallacies and unravels the web of flawed research that has been woven to demonstrate the superiority of one group of people over another.

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