Pioneers of racial development or proponents of subjugation?

This thesis attempted to analyse The Journal of Race Development 1910-1919, a relatively obscure journal that discussed the means, methods and desirability of the elevation of so-called ‘lesser races.’ The journal was founded out of Clark University by George Hubbard Blakeslee and Granville Stanley Hall and it has received little scholarly attention, despite being an important piece of academic history. The goal of this analysis was to ascertain what the journal contributed to the debate pertaining to race and racial development, but also to identify the viewpoints of the authors contained within, as the journal itself was simply a forum. A further goal was to fit the journal and the concept of race within the discourse of international relations. The conventional narrative of IR stipulates that it was created in 1919, which would exclude this journal. Furthermore, the concept of race is notably absent from the discipline of IR. Investigation and conclusion will seek to explain why this was the case. This has been achieved by quantitatively analysing the number of times an author contributed, what regions were most discussed and what topics were most prevalent. To do this, the journal has been divided into two periods: 1910-1914 (early) and 1915-1919 (late). Selecting two periods for comparison allows for the identification of changes or continuity. The authors to be scrutinised were selected based on the number of their contributions. This was to ensure an impartial selection and that there would be adequate material for analysis. A random sampling was considered, but this could become problematic due to either a lack of material or an unrepresentative sampling. Once the authors for consideration have been identified with this method, the analysis will look at the implications of article titles, the content of the article itself and briefly at other publications by the authors. This approach has made it clear that there was a wide range of authors with countless different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds. The analysis identified some consistency in how the journal perceived colonial situations, as well as members of other races. Despite this, there is some dissent present in both periods of analysis, but there are also divergences across geographic regions discussed, which can potentially be attributed to the outbreak of WW1. This analysis was by no means exhaustive and due to the constraints related to the size of the thesis, certain information or documents have had to remain absent for the sake of concision. It is the opinion of the author that this topic and subject are still relatively undocumented and it would be of significant academic importance for this work to be continued further.