Romanticism, Race, and Recapitulation

What is it about?

Historical explanation for the persistence of race in modern thought. Abstract: This essay describes how Romantics writing about race approached the subject by using analogy, polarities, and hierarchies of class and power to define racial differences. Although recapitulation is no longer accepted as a principle in embryology and evolution, the idea that social development and civilization parallel an order of races is a carryover from Romantic ideas about recapitulation.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Race is nostalgia.