Racism as full ideology was forged in France by a frustrated nobleman

Evidence

As long as these trends ran side by side, they were but temporary means of escape from political realities. Once welded together, they formed the very basis for racism as a full-fledged ideology. This, however, did not happen first in Germany, but in France, and was not accomplished by middle-class intellectuals but by a highly gifted and frustrated nobleman, the Comte de Gobineau. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 456

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• QUESTION: The claim that full-fledged racist ideology emerged in France, not Germany, overturns the common Germany-centric genealogy — worth chasing in the later race-thinking history.

Related

• French racism was more consistent than other national racisms because it stayed antinational (similarity 0.81)
• Nobility’s conquest doctrine split France into two peoples before race-thinking emerged (similarity 0.81)
• Racism was pan-European public opinion before it was German state doctrine (similarity 0.80)
• Gobineau invented racism by projecting his caste’s decline onto civilization’s fate. (similarity 0.80)