Journal of Race Development

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The Journal of Race Development was the first American journal of international relations. It was founded in 1911 by George Hubbard Blakeslee, a historian who taught at Clark University. Despite a name which now suggests a journal devoted to eugenics, the journal, in fact, dealt with a variety of topics connected with politics, foreign affairs and international relations. It was merged with The Journal of International Relations, which in turn was merged with Foreign Affairs in 1922.

In its founder's words, the journal aimed to present "...the important facts which bear upon race progress, and the different theories as to the methods by which developed peoples may most effectively aid the progress of the undeveloped".

In a recent article (Ethnic and Racial studies 2004, vol. 27, #5, ISSN 0141-9870) the author holds that its basic premise was that scientific knowledge could harness racial or civilizational evolution and turn it into development. The article examines that project, the conceptual apparatus that the journal's writers and editors brought to bear on it, and how racial ideas informed their conceptions of development and progressive social change through elite scientific and political intervention. She claims that central to this project was an organic notion of civilization in which nature and culture did not so much overlap as flow seamlessly one into the other (Jessica Blatt - "To bring out the best that is in their blood": Race, reform, and civilization in the Journal of Race Development).

[edit] Major Articles

The following are some of the articles published in The Journal of Race Development which are most commonly cited today.

Chamberlain, A. F. "The Contribution of the Negro to Human Civilization", Journal of Race Development, Vol. I, April, 1911
Du Bois, W.E.B., "Of the Culture of White Folk," Journal of Race Development, April 1917
Fayette Avery McKenzie, "The American Indian of Today and Tomorrow," The Journal of Race Development, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Oct., 1912)
Huntington , Ellsworth, "The Adaptability of the White Man to Tropical America," Journal of Race Development, October, 1914
Singh, Sander. "The Hindu in Canada," Journal of Race Development, 7, 1916-17, 361-382.
Veblen, Thorstein. "The Mutation Theory and the Blond Race", 1913, Journal of Race Development.
Veblen, Thorstein. "The Opportunity of Japan", 1915, Journal of Race Development.