The Races of Mankind

2020 Reprint of the 1943 Edition.  Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition software.  Published on October 25, 1943, The Races of Mankind makes the argument that all the world’s humans are biologically the same.  Written by anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Gene Weltfish and illustrated by Ad Reinhardt, The Races of Mankind attacked Nazi party racial policies and urged mankind to see past superficial differences and live in harmony. The pamphlet was a publication of The Public Affairs Committee, a non-profit educational organization whose purpose was “to make available in summary and inexpensive form the results of research on economic and social problems to aid in the understanding and development of American policy” (Benedict and Weltfish, 1943).

The idea of scientific racial equality, however, was not met with universal agreement. When the U.S. Army ordered 55,000 copies, members of Congress labeled the pamphlet “communistic” and its use by the Army was banned. Still, the scientific pamphlet’s popularity grew, and by 1945 three-quarters of a million copies were in circulation (Abraham, 2012).