Editing Anti-Americanism (section)

==== Degeneracy thesis ====
In the mid- to late-eighteenth century, a theory emerged among some European intellectuals which stated that the landmasses of the [[New World]] were inherently inferior to that of Europe. Proponents of the so-called "degeneracy thesis" held the view that climatic extremes, humidity and other atmospheric conditions in America physically weakened both men and animals.<ref name=hatingamerica>{{cite book |first=Barry |last=Rubin |author-link=Barry Rubin |author2=Rubin, Judith Colp |title=Hating America: A History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-19-530649-X}}</ref>{{rp|3–19}} American author [[James W. Ceaser]] and French author Philippe Roger have interpreted this theory as "a kind of prehistory of anti-Americanism"<ref name=Ceaser>{{cite journal | url=http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2003summer/article1.html | title=A genealogy of anti-Americanism | author=Ceaser, James W. | journal=[[The Public Interest]] | date=Summer 2003 | access-date=3 May 2005 | archive-date=22 February 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222050520/http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2003summer/article1.html | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Granthem>{{cite journal | last =Grantham | first =Bill |date=Summer 2003 | title =Brilliant Mischief: The French on Anti-Americanism | journal =[[World Policy Journal]] | volume =20 | issue =2 | pages =95–101 | doi =10.1215/07402775-2003-3011 |url=http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj03-2/grantham.html|access-date=16 May 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080430075751/http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/articles/wpj03-2/grantham.html| archive-date = 30 April 2008| url-access =subscription }}</ref> and have (in the words of Philippe Roger) been a historical "constant" since the 18th century, or again an endlessly repetitive "semantic block". Others, like [[Jean-François Revel]], have examined what lay hidden behind this 'fashionable' ideology.<ref>Denis Lacorne, [http://www.ceri-sciencespo.com/archive/mars05/artdl.pdf ANTI-AMERICANISM AND AMERICANOPHOBIA : A FRENCH PERSPECTIVE] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110524043828/http://www.ceri-sciencespo.com/archive/mars05/artdl.pdf |date=24 May 2011 }}, March 2005.</ref> Purported evidence for the idea included the smallness of [[Fauna of the United States|American fauna]], dogs that ceased to bark, and venomous plants;<ref name=Meunier>{{cite web | last =Meunier | first =Sophie | author-link =Sophie Meunier | date =March 2005 | title =Anti-Americanism in France | publisher =[[Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs]], [[Princeton University]] | url =http://www.jhfc.duke.edu/ducis/GlobalEquity/pdfs/Meunier.pdf | access-date =18 May 2008 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20080527224611/http://www.jhfc.duke.edu/ducis/GlobalEquity/pdfs/Meunier.pdf | archive-date =27 May 2008 }}</ref> one theory put forth was that the New World had emerged from the [[Biblical flood]] later than the [[Old World]].<ref name=Popkin>{{cite journal|last=Popkin |first=Richard H. |date=January 1978 |title=The Dispute of the New World: The History of a Polemic, 1750–1900 (review) |journal=[[Journal of the History of Philosophy]] |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=115–118 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_the_history_of_philosophy/v016/16.1popkin.pdf |access-date=27 May 2008 |quote=Jefferson, who was U.S. ambassador to Paris after the Revolution, was pushed by the rampant anti-Americanism of some of the French intellectuals to publish the only book of his that appeared in his lifetime, the [[Notes on Virginia]] (1782–1784) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528141305/http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=%2Fjournals%2Fjournal_of_the_history_of_philosophy%2Fv016%2F16.1popkin.pdf |archive-date=28 May 2008 |url-status=live |doi=10.1353/hph.2008.0035 |s2cid=147006780 }}</ref> [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] were also held to be feeble, small, and without ardor.<ref name=Goldstein>{{cite web |first=James A. |last=Goldstein |url=http://lsr.nellco.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=rwu/rwufp |title=Aliens in the Garden |access-date=22 May 2008 |publisher=nellco.org (Posted with permission of the author) |work=Roger Williams University School of Law Faculty Papers }}{{Dead link|date=November 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The theory was originally proposed by [[Comte de Buffon]], a leading French naturalist, in his ''[[Histoire Naturelle]]'' (1766).<ref name=Goldstein/> The French writer [[Voltaire]] joined Buffon and others in making the argument.<ref name=Meunier/> [[Dutch Republic|Dutchman]] [[Cornelius de Pauw]], court philosopher to [[Frederick II of Prussia]] became its leading proponent.<ref name=Ceaser/> While Buffon focused on the American biological environment, de Pauw attacked the people who were native to the continent.<ref name=Popkin/> James Ceaser has noted that the denunciation of America as inferior to Europe was partially motivated by the German government's fear of mass [[emigration]]; de Pauw was called upon to convince the Germans that the new world was inferior. De Pauw is also known to have influenced the philosopher [[Immanuel Kant]] in a similar direction.<ref>{{cite book|first1 = Brendan|last1 = O'Connor|last2 = Griffiths|first2 = Martin|title = Anti-Americanism – Historical Perspectives|year = 2007|page = 8| publisher=Greenwood Publishing |isbn = 9781846450259|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KF0pySH-ozsC&pg=PA8|access-date = 8 November 2020|archive-date = 26 January 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210126131052/https://books.google.com/books?id=KF0pySH-ozsC&pg=PA8|url-status = live}}</ref>

De Pauw said that the New World was unfit for human habitation because it was, "so ill-favored by nature that all it contains is either degenerate or monstrous". He asserted that, "the earth, full of putrefaction, was flooded with lizards, snakes, serpents, reptiles and insects". Taking a long-term perspective, he announced that he was, "certain that the conquest of the New World...has been the greatest of all misfortunes to befall mankind."<ref>C. Vann Woodward, ''The Old World's New World'' (1991) p 6</ref>

The theory made it easier for its proponents to argue that the natural environment of the United States would prevent it from ever producing a true culture. Echoing de Pauw, the [[Encyclopédie|French Encyclopedist]] [[Abbé Raynal]] wrote in 1770, "America has not yet produced a good poet, an able mathematician, one man of genius in a single art or a single science".<ref>{{cite book|author=James W. Ceaser|title=Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5kvAruS5H0C&pg=PA26|year=1997|publisher=Yale U.P.|page=26. Note: Ceaser writes in his endnote to this sentence (p. 254), that "...in later editions of his work, Raynal exempted North America, but not South America, from this criticism"|isbn=0300084536|access-date=29 October 2015|archive-date=5 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105152107/https://books.google.com/books?id=t5kvAruS5H0C&pg=PA26|url-status=live}}</ref> The theory was debated and rejected by early American thinkers such as [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], and [[Thomas Jefferson]]; Jefferson, in his ''[[Notes on the State of Virginia]]'' (1781), provided a detailed rebuttal of de Buffon from a scientific point of view.<ref name=Ceaser/> Hamilton also vigorously rebuked the idea in [[Federalist No. 11]] (1787).<ref name=Goldstein/>

One critic, citing Raynal's ideas, suggests that it was specifically extended to the [[Thirteen Colonies]] that would become the United States.<ref>{{cite journal | last =Danzer | first =Gerald A. |date=February 1974 | title =Has the Discovery of America Been Useful or Hurtful to Mankind? Yesterday's Questions and Today's Students | journal =The History Teacher | volume =7 | issue =2 |pages=192–206| doi =10.2307/491792 | jstor =491792}}</ref>{{clarify|date=August 2014<!-- is the critic spoken of here Gerald Danzer, or someone (perhaps Jeremy Bellknap, perhaps someone else) of whom Professor Danzer writes in the paper? Where in the paper is the idea "specifically extended to the English colonies that would become the United States"?-->}}

Roger suggests that the idea of degeneracy posited a symbolic, as well as a scientific, America that would evolve beyond the original thesis. He argues that Buffon's ideas formed the root of a "stratification of negative discourses" that has recurred throughout the history of the two countries' relationship (and been matched by persistent [[Francophobia]] in the United States).<ref name=Granthem/>