Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau was a French diplomat and writer. He was born in 1816, in Bordeaux, France. de Gobineau served as a member of the French diplomatic service from 1849 to 1877. His literary works include several romances and a history of Persia, but his most famous piece is by far his Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines, or Essay on the Inequality of Human Races. This was a four-volume essay which argued that the fate of civilization is determined by the racial composition of the people living in it. An active supporter of social Darwinism, de Gobineau felt that the original "pure" European race had been contaminated by cross-breeding with other races that de Gobineau considered "unpure", such as the Africans and Orientals. Furthermore, de Gobineau felt that it was too late to do anything abount the problem. de Gobineau died in 1882.
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The Western Tradition. Eugene Weber. D.C. Heath and Company