Race served as an ideological guide where geography provided no unity

Evidence

For Dilke, common origin, inheritance, “grandeur of race” were neither physical facts nor the key to history but a much-needed guide in the present world, the only reliable link in a boundless space. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 478

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that race-thinking operates as functional ideology, not empirical fact — a core definitional point for the field vocabulary.