Basil Gildersleeve and John Scott: Race and the Rise of American Classical Philology

Abstract:In this paper, I expose some of the ways contemporary ideas about race permeated the rise of American classical philology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. More specifically, I identify places where ideas about race, slavery, skin color, and "race suicide" surface in the writings of Basil Gildersleeve and John Scott, then show how those concepts can be traced to the rise of racial science in the United States—especially in the work of the American School of Ethnology and the eugenics movement—and its response to the American experiences of slavery, emancipation, and immigration.