JOHANN FRIEDRICH BLUMENBACH

The major significance of the German naturalist-physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) as a topic of historical study is the fact that he was one of the first anthropologists to investigate humankind as part of natural history. Moreover, Blumenbach was and continues to be a central figure in debates about race and racism.This collection of essays considers how, with Blumenbach and around him, the study of natural history and, by extension, that of science came to dominate the Western discourse of race.