Conquest of a Continent

2018 Reprint of 1933 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Illustrated with Maps. A leading conservationist in the United States, Madison Grant’s preoccupation with biodiversity was not limited to wildlife, but also extended to humans, particularly where that biodiversity intersected with the wider sweep of history, its meaning and interpretation, and government policy. Grant provides here a racial and ethnic history of the European settlement of North America, spanning from the ancient nations of Europe to the United States of his day. His thesis was that the United States was settled mostly by Northwestern Europeans, particularly English and Ulster Scots. To his mind, this relative homogeneity, plus the generally high quality of these enterprising settlers, conferred upon the new nation its prosperity, cohesion, stability, and defining cultural characteristics. Grant was concerned that then recent waves of immigration from poorer parts of Europe would lead to social instability, division, economic decline, and a growing underclass. He also thought that the failure to deal with problems left by slavery stored trouble for the future. Grant’s represents today an unfashionable opinion, and his framework of analysis—not to mention his Nordic bias—makes him seem biased and outdated. Yet, he remains historically important. The old arguments have not gone away: as in Europe, they are being updated and revisited in the United States, which is now more socially unstable and more divided than previously thought possible.