Abstract
THE thesis which Dr. John Oakesmith maintains in this work is one which concerns anthropologists as well as politicians and historians. His doctrine that the national frontiers of Europe have no racial significance is a truth so apparent that no proof, needs to be adduced. Yet it is perhaps well that the fact should again obe insisted on at the present time because the public mind is still influenced by the vigorous anthropological teaching of last century wherein it was maintained that the Saxon and Celtic elements in the population of these islands were of diverse racial stocks. We agree with Dr. Oakesmith that there is no single character or set of characters in body or mind, by which an anthropologist can tell an Irishman from an Englishman. The claim for Irish separation doe certainly not depend on a difference of race, for both English and Irish are members of the same racial stock, and of the two the Irish are the-more representative of the Nordic or North Atlantic race.
Race and Nationality: An Inquiry into the Origin and Growth of Patriotism.
By Dr. John Oakesmith. Pp. xix + 300. (London: William Heinemann, 1919.) Price 10s. 6d. net.
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KEITH, A. Race and Nationality: An Inquiry into the Origin and Growth of Patriotism . Nature 104, 311 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/104311a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/104311a0