Crania Americana -the most important book in the history of scientific racism

On display at the Whipple Library, Cambridge, is a book described as the 'most important book in the history of scientific racism' Current research into this book is revealing how racist ideas travelled between the United States and Europe in the 19th century. Crania Americana, published in Philadelphia in 1839 by Samuel George Morton, is being studied by Cambridge University PhD student James Poskett at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. His research has uncovered, for the first time, just how influential this book was in scientific circles that included the likes of Charles Darwin and James Cowles Prichard. www.hps.cam.ac.uk/library/Fpage.html