The Disturbing Worldview of Aleš Hrdlička: Book Launch

Dr. Mark Andrew (“Drew”) Brandon will discuss his new book, The Perils of Race Thinking: A Portrait of Aleš Hrdlička with fellow UNYP professor, Dr. Tess Slavíčková.

Aleš Hrdlička (1869–1943) was a founding father of physical anthropology in the United States, where he worked at the prestigious Smithsonian Institution for over three decades. Although his ideas about race are today considered “pseudoscience,” the uncomfortable truth is that he was an internationally respected scientist in his own day. His intellectual world offers a disconcerting example of the pervasiveness of race-thinking in the modern age. Perils of Race-Thinking has been described as “rich in detail, well documented and an excellent read,” as a thorough rebuttal to the “popular image of Hrdlička as a champion of racial equality,” and as offering “new insights into the theorization of race in the early twentieth century.”

Book-related links:

https://ceupress.com/book/perils-race-thinking

https://newbooksnetwork.com/007-series-spotlight-ceu-press-studies-in-the-history-of-medicine