The Earth and Man: Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography, in its Relation to the History of Mankind
Boston: Gould, Kendall, and Lincoln, 1849. First Edition. Hardcover. Translated from the French by C.C. Felton. All plates present, including the ones showing the "degeneration of the human type in leaving the central region of Western Asia." Seemingly inscribed by Guyot in French on the front endpaper. Good. Brown publisher's binding, faded, rubbed and bumped, soiled, gilt lettering fairly complete and bright on the spine. Square, bound with reading wear, one signature hanging on by the threads. A transcription of Guyot's lectures delivered at Lowell Institute, in which, according to William Koelsch, he established a system of weather stations and laid the groundwork for better geography intruction. Those geographical contributions, unfortunately, appeared alongside proto-eugenics passages like this: "It results from this remarkable distribution of the races of man, that the continents of the North, which form the central mass of the lands, are inhabited by the finest races, and present the most perfect types; while the continents of the South, forming the extreme and far sundered points of the lands, are exclusively occupied by inferior races, and the most imperfect representatives of human nature." Good. Item #16795
Price: $200.00