The inequality of human races

audiobook

The inequality of human races

by comte de Arthur Gobineau

EN·~8 hours·21 chapters

Chapters

21 total
1

THE INEQUALITY OF HUMAN RACES

0:15
2

CONTENTS

1:50
3

INTRODUCTION TO GOBINEAU’S “INEQUALITY OF HUMAN RACES”

5:27
4

FROM THE AUTHOR’S DEDICATION (1854) TO HIS MAJESTY GEORGE V, KING OF HANOVER

8:57
5

CHAPTER I THE MORTAL DISEASE OF CIVILIZATIONS AND SOCIETIES PROCEEDS FROM GENERAL CAUSES COMMON TO THEM ALL

11:35
6

CHAPTER II FANATICISM, LUXURY, CORRUPTION OF MORALS, AND IRRELIGION DO NOT NECESSARILY LEAD TO THE FALL OF SOCIETIES

24:12
7

CHAPTER III THE RELATIVE MERIT OF GOVERNMENTS HAS NO INFLUENCE ON THE LENGTH OF A NATION’S LIFE

6:43
8

CHAPTER IV THE MEANING OF THE WORD “DEGENERATION”; THE MIXTURE OF RACIAL ELEMENTS; HOW SOCIETIES ARE FORMED AND BROKEN UP

28:51
9

CHAPTER V RACIAL INEQUALITY IS NOT THE RESULT OF INSTITUTIONS

38:39
10

CHAPTER VI NATIONS, WHETHER PROGRESSING OR STAGNATING, ARE INDEPENDENT OF THE REGIONS IN WHICH THEY LIVE

15:38

Description

The work opens with a sweeping survey of how societies rise and fall, arguing that underlying biological differences among peoples shape the course of history. Drawing on contemporary anthropology, the author classifies humanity into distinct groups and examines their relative strengths, cultures, and intellectual capacities. He links these ideas to the political and moral climate of his era, suggesting that modern civilization bears the imprint of deep‑seated racial hierarchies.

In the first part, listeners will encounter a detailed, albeit now discredited, taxonomy of races and a critique of liberal ideals that the author sees as blind to these natural orders. The narrative reflects the nineteenth‑century obsession with scientific classification and offers a window into the intellectual currents that influenced later political movements. While the conclusions are controversial, the book provides a historical lens on how scientific thought was once marshaled to justify social theory.

Details

Language

en

Duration

~8 hours (483K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Original publisher

United Kingdom: William Heinemann, 1915.

Credits

Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

Release date

2023-01-09

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

comte de Arthur Gobineau

comte de Arthur Gobineau

1816–1882

A 19th-century French diplomat and writer, he is remembered for travel-inspired fiction and historical writing, as well as for the racial theories that made him a deeply controversial figure. His work ranges from novels and short stories to political and cultural essays shaped by a life spent moving across Europe and beyond.

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