Nineteenth-century race was a loose cultural term, not a fixed category.

Evidence

It is significant that the very concept of race had not yet attained its later fixity and definiteness. Racial nationalism, having arisen out of political and literary speculation, not out of scientific inquiry, displayed a characteristic vagueness. In the sense in which nationalists used the word, “race” often meant little more than national character. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 69

Categorization

• QUESTION: Evidence race was initially vague romantic speculation — racialization hardened later, supporting the reader’s hypothesis that racial categories are a transitional, mutable form of the enemy category.
• XREF: connects to: Race is a shifting disposition, not a fixed category.; Race was once understood as a fixed natural essence, not a social construct. — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 1671; Race categories are historical and political, not pigment-based — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 232 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Race is a shifting disposition, not a fixed category. #corroborates (0.92)
• Race was once understood as a fixed natural essence, not a social construct. #contradicts (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 1671
• Race categories are historical and political, not pigment-based #expands (0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 232
• Race and ethnicity are socially constructed rather than natural categories. #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 104
• Racial categories were administratively imposed rather than biologically fixed #corroborates (0.82) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 216
• Race is a political and social construct, not a scientific category #expands (0.80)
• Race lacks a singular transhistorical essence and is not fully determined by economics #corroborates (0.78)
• Race is a modern concept barely existing before the Enlightenment #expands (0.74)