Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant

505 Pages·2008·2.57 MB·English

by  Jonathan Peter Spiro

J C d
and he collaborated with Southern white racists to o o
advance praise for
n
pass laws banning interracial marriage.
n s e
Although most of the relevant archival ma- e
terials on Madison Grant have mysteriously dis- d e f e n d i n g t h e a rv f d e f e n d i n g
appeared over the decades since Grant’s death in t a
e
1937, Jonathan Peter Spiro has devoted many years h t
i
to reconstructing the hitherto concealed events of a o n
n
Grant’s life. His astonishing feat of detective work m r
a s t e r a c e n ,

reveals how a founder of the Bronx Zoo wound up e d
writing The Passing of the Great Race (1916), the p u t h e
g A historical rediscovery of a founder of the
book that the Nazis later used to justify the exter- e e i
conservation movement who was also one of the
minationist policies of the Third Reich. t n n
i most infamous racists in American history
C
e s
“Jonathan Spiro has accomplished a near-miraculous feat of scholarship, reconstructing from r , a g m a s t e r Scholars have labeled Madison Grant everything
n from “the nation’s most influential racist” to “the
apparently purged primary sources the life and impact of a titan of American conservation s
d
t greatest conservationist that ever lived.” His life
whose enduring best-seller, The Passing of the Great Race, Adolph Hitler called his ‘Bible.’ p
t
illuminates early twentieth-century America as it
Madison Grant’s prolific career bridged the development of wildlife and ecosystem manage- i h
r e h was heading toward the American Century, and his
r
ment with that of scientific racism and eugenics early in the twentieth century. The horrific o L a c e legacy is still very much with us today, from the
consequences of the latter unfortunately annulled the memory of what good Grant did. Spiro e e speeches of immigrant-bashing politicians to the
g
elucidates not only that link, but also the largely ignored continuities between the anti-demo- a international efforts to arrest climate change. This
C
cratic Anglo-American aristocracy and the German extermination program, the toll of which y m insightful biography shows how Grant worked side-
became apparent only after Grant’s own passing.” o by-side with figures such as Theodore Roosevelt,
f Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to

M a found the Bronx Zoo, preserve the California red-
—Gray Brechin,
a
woods, and save the American bison from extinc-
author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin (1999) d s
i tion. In commemoration of his conservation efforts,
s
Jonathan peter spiro o t the world’s tallest tree, located in northern Califor-
n nia, was dedicated to Grant in 1931.
“Jonathan Spiro’s portrait of Madison Grant is far more than a biography. Indeed, it is a fresh
e
is a professor of history at Castleton College in Ver- But Madison Grant was also the leader of the
portrait of two parallel and intertwined movements: racial eugenics and natural conservation. g
mont. During the four years it took him to uncover r r eugenics movement in the United States. He popu-
the secret life of Madison Grant, Professor Spiro As importantly, it is also an astonishing act of recovery, a deeply researched illumination of one a larized the infamous notions that the blond-haired,
n
conducted extensive research in hundreds of ar- of the twentieth century’s most enduringly significant and deeply troubling intellectuals.” t blue-eyed Nordics were the “master race” and that
chives all over the United States and painstakingly r the state should eliminate members of inferior races
combed through the writings and correspondence —Matthew Pratt Guterl, who were of no value to the community. Through-
a
of thousands of Grant’s contemporaries. Indiana University, and author of The Color of Race in America, 1900–1940 (2001) out the 1920s and 1930s, Grant’s ideas appeared in
Conservation, eugeniCs, and
the sermons of ministers, the pages of America’s
c
leading magazines, and the speeches of presidents.
the LegaCy of Madison grant
Grant’s behind-the-scenes machinations (and ma-
e
nipulation of scientific data) convinced Congress
Jacket Design: the DesignWorks group, charles Brock to enact the immigration restriction legislation of
author photo: ennis Duling
the 1920s that eliminated the immigration of non-
Jacket illustrations (top to Bottom): J o n a t h a n p e t e r s p i r o
Buffalo image courtesy of the liBrary of congress, University of Vermont Press Nordic races. Grant also influenced many states to
lc-usZ62-39967; maDison grant photograph courtesy Burlington, Vermont 978-1-58465-715-6 pass coercive sterilization statutes under which tens
of the WilDlife conservation society; german
Published by University Press of New England of thousands of Americans deemed to be unworthy
phrenology photograph, 1932, courtesy of ullstein BilD/
were sterilized from the 1930s through the 1970s,
the granger c ollection, neW y ork. Hanover and London
Vermont
www.upne.com
Defending the Master Race
university of vermont press
Burlington, Vermont
Published by University Press of New England
Hanover and London
Conservation,
Eugenics, and
the Legacy of
madison grant
(cid:36)(cid:69)(cid:70)(cid:69)(cid:78)(cid:68)(cid:73)(cid:78)(cid:71)(cid:223)
(cid:84)(cid:72)(cid:69)(cid:223)(cid:45)(cid:65)(cid:83)(cid:84)(cid:69)(cid:82)(cid:223)(cid:50)(cid:65)(cid:67)(cid:69)
jonathan peter spiro
university of vermont press
Published by University Press of New England,
One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766
www.upne.com
© 2009 by Jonathan Peter Spiro
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in
any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including
storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from
the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages
in a review. Members of educational institutions and organizations
wishing to photocopy any of the work for classroom use, or authors
and publishers who would like to obtain permission for any of the
material in the work, should contact Permissions, University Press
of New England, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spiro, Jonathan Peter.
Defending the master race: conservation, eugenics, and the legacy
of Madison Grant / Jonathan Peter Spiro.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn978-1-58465-715-6 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Grant, Madison, 1865–1937. 2. Grant, Madison, 1865–1937—
Influence. 3. Conservationists—United States—Biography.
4. Hunters—United States—Biography. 5. Big game hunting—
History. 6. Wildlife management—United States—History.
7. Zoologists—New York (State)—New York—Biography. 8. Eugenics
—United States—History. 9. Racism—United States—History.
10. United States—Race relations. I. Title.
ct275.g677s65 2008
305.8'00973—dc22
[b] 2008038610
Dedicated with
immeasurable love and gratitude to
audrey and melford spiro—
the one instance where I hope that
Madison Grant was right when he
claimed that the sole determinants
of what we become are the genes
of our parents

Contents
Madison Grant: The Consensus ix
Introduction xi
part i. the evolution of scientific racism
Chapter 1. Big-Game Hunter 3
Chapter 2. The Bronx Zoo 31
Chapter 3. From Conservation to Preservation 52
Chapter 4. Wildlife Management 73
Chapter 5. From Mammals to Man 88
Chapter 6. The Eugenics Creed 117
part ii. conserving the nordics
Chapter 7. The Passing of the Great Race 143
Chapter 8. Grant’s Disciples 167
Chapter 9. Creating the Refuge 196
Chapter 10. Culling the Herd 234
Chapter 11. Saving the Redwoods 266
part iii. extinction
Chapter 12. Nordic and Anti-Nordic 297
Chapter 13. The Empire Crumbles 328
Chapter 14. The Ever-Widening Circle:
The Third Reich 355
Epilogue. The Passing of the Great Patrician 384
Appendix A: Organizations Served by Madison Grant in
an Executive Capacity 391
Appendix B: The Interlocking Directorate of Wildlife
Conservation 392
Appendix C: Selected Members of the Advisory Council
of the ECUSA 394
Appendix D: Selected Members of the Interlocking
Directorate of Scientific Racism 395
Key to Archival Collections 397
Notes 401
Works Cited 443
Index 467

Madison Grant
The Consensus
1940s
“The high priest of racialism in America.”
Gunnar Myrdal
1950s
“Intellectually the most important nativist in recent American history.”
John Higham
1960s
“The nation’s most influential racist.”
Mark Haller
1970s
“The dean of American racists.”
Ethel W. Hedlin
1980s
“The most famous of the new scholars of race.”
Page Smith
1990s
“One of the nation’s foremost racists.”
Steven Selden
2000s
“The great patriarch of scientific racism.”
Matthew Guterl