Arthur de Gobineau
Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882) was a French diplomat, writer, and philosopher best known for his controversial theories on race and civilization, particularly outlined in his seminal work, "Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines" (1853-1855). Born into an aristocratic family near Paris, Gobineau's early education included classical studies and exposure to diverse literary works, which shaped his intellectual pursuits. His career was profoundly affected by the upheaval of the 1830 revolution, leading him to navigate Parisian society as a writer and eventually enter the diplomatic corps, where he served in various European cities and contributed to French political life.
Gobineau's theories posited a hierarchy among races, asserting that the so-called Aryan race was superior and that racial mixing would lead to societal degeneration. His views emerged during a time of burgeoning interest in human origins and were influenced by contemporary scientific debates, including those sparked by Charles Darwin's evolutionary theories. While Gobineau's ideas gained notoriety, they also mirrored the xenophobic tendencies of his era and fueled discussions surrounding racism and colonialism. His work is often critiqued for its impact on the development of social Darwinism and the justification of racial superiority ideologies. Despite the controversial nature of his theories, Gobineau remains a significant figure in discussions about race and anthropology in the 19th century.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Arthur de Gobineau
French writer, diplomat, and white supremacist
- Born: July 14, 1816
- Birthplace: Ville d'Avray, France
- Died: October 13, 1882
- Place of death: Turin, Italy
Cause of notoriety: In his treatise Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines (1853-1855, 6 volumes; The Inequality of Human Races, 1915), Gobineau postulated his belief that of the three “races”—black, yellow, and white—the white race was superior and could be traced back to its Aryan or Teutonic roots.
Active: 1850’s-1882
Locale: Europe, Iran, Egypt, Greece, Persia, and East Asia
Early Life
Born near Paris into an aristocratic family, Arthur de Gobineau (ahr-tur duh goh-bee-noh) was raised as a Roman Catholic royalist. His tutor, from the University of Iena, taught him German and introduced him to Alf layla wa-layla (fifteenth century; The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, 1706-1708). This book became his favorite for the rest of his life. He was sent to school in Bienne (French-speaking Switzerland), where he studied Latin and Greek.
With the revolution of 1830, Gobineau’s aristocratic world burst. There was no more money, and being a member of the nobility was no longer an asset. Gobineau’s father tried to persuade him to join the military, but Gobineau found this to be a distasteful prospect and instead persuaded his ornery Parisian uncle to take him in. Gobineau frequented Parisian social circles and wrote feverishly. His first published work appeared in the respected Revue des Deux Mondes (review of two worlds); it led to his becoming an aide to French essayist and diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville.
Gobineau married Clémence Monnerot (from whom he would separate thirty years later), and they had two girls, Diane and Christine. In his family, he remained close to his sister Caroline, who became a Benedictine mother in the Abbey of Solesmes. They maintained a long and rich correspondence.
Political Career
Gobineau’s service to Tocqueville during the days of the French Constituent Assembly of 1848 ended abruptly when Napoleon III fired Tocqueville a few months later. Through his connections, Gobineau entered the diplomatic corps and was sent first to Berne, Switzerland, and then to Hanover and Frankfurt, Germany; he resided in Frankfurt from 1851 to 1854. The first two volumes of his famous Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines (1853-1855) appeared in 1853 and the remaining four volumes were published in 1855 after his departure for Tehran, Iran. Back in Paris in 1857, he was sent to Newfoundland and the Savoy before returning to Tehran in 1861 for two years. Athens was the next post, from 1864 to 1868. Gobineau was most displeased when Paris recalled him to go to Rio de Janeiro, where he became ill. He returned home in 1870. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Louis-Adolphe Thiers, president of the French Republic, sent Gobineau to Stockholm until 1877, when he returned to France to reside permanently.
Gobineau’s notoriety resulted from his astounding theories on race, aristocracy, and civilization. His claims in Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines both that the white race emanated from the so-called Aryan race and was superior to the black and yellow races and that intermingling of blood caused degeneration were novel arguments and provoked strong reactions. The inevitable mixing of races, Gobineau held, would eventually bring all races into the melting pot, resulting in egalitarianism and the end of any purity in the races, an utter shame for the human species. Later, Gobineau modified his stance somewhat by claiming that in individuals, the father’s strong hereditary traits could be passed to the son.
Impact
Gobineau’s entire work represents the antithesis to all that the French Revolution of 1789 symbolized and ran counter to many of the new French social mores. It did, however, come at a time of intense interest in and speculation about the origins of humankind and the place and biological and social role of human beings. In 1859, Charles Darwin published his theory of natural selection, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859), a work that was followed by Darwin’s treatise on human evolution, The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). These works gave life to unscientific theories such as those of Gobineau and, at the same time, fueled speculations about the “survival of the fittest” in a nonevolutionary time frame, which led to the unfortunate and misguided notions of “social Darwinism.” Gobineau, then, must be seen in the context of this period, when anthropology and paleontology were not yet grounded in rigorous scientific methodologies. Nevertheless, his notions of racial purity—and of race in general—both reflected and propagated the xenophobia and dehumanization of others that justified racism and colonial imperialism.
Bibliography
Boissel, Jean. Gobineau biographie: Mythes et réalités. Paris: Berg International, 1993. Assesses Gobineau’s reputation in nineteenth century Europe. Anti-Enlightenment, anti-progress, anti-patriotic, and anti-bourgeois, Gobineau was also a romantic who invented himself as a participant in medieval chivalry and a descendant of a Norwegian pirate. A penetrating study. In French.
Dreyfus, Robert. “La Vie et les prophéties du comte de Gobineau.” Cahiers de la Quinzaine 16 (1905). In the sixth of a series of university lectures, Dreyfus discusses Gobineau’s life, voyages, diplomatic career, and writings in a colorful and poignantly moral, social, and literary portrait.
Gobineau, Arthur, Comte de. The Inequality of Human Races. Preface by George L. Mosse. New York: H. Fertig, 1999. A reprint of the original 1915 translation by Adrian Collins, including an informative preface, bibliographical references, and an index.
Valette, Rebecca. Arthur de Gobineau and the Short Story. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1969. For literature aficionados, the introduction is an excellent synopsis of the life, thought, and literary techniques of a master storyteller.