The Races of Mankind

2020 Reprint of the 1943 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Published on October 25 1943 The Races of Mankind makes the argument that all the worlds humans are biologically the same. Written by anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Gene Weltfish and illustrated by Ad Reinhardt The Races of Mankind attacked Nazi party racial policies and urged mankind to see past superficial differences and live in harmony. The pamphlet was a publication of The Public Affairs Committee a non-profit educational organization whose purpose was to make available in summary and inexpensive form the results of research on economic and social problems to aid in the understanding and development of American policy (Benedict and Weltfish 1943).The idea of scientific racial equality however was not met with universal agreement. When the U.S. Army ordered 55000 copies members of Congress labeled the pamphlet communistic and its use by the Army was banned. Still the scientific pamphlets popularity grew and by 1945 three-quarters of a million copies were in circulation (Abraham 2012).