Reconceptualizing the history of race psychology: Thomas Russell Garth (1872–1939) and how he changed his mind

Thomas Russell Garth was the single most prolific researcher on race differences during the inter-war period. He is, however, virtually never mentioned in accounts of psychology's past treatment of 'race' issues (nor is he the only figure of whom this is true). In this paper his career and views are reviewed and the reasons for his neglect by historians are examined. It is argued that Garth's case raises some major questions regarding the received historical picture of inter-war U.S. 'race psychology' and that further progress in understanding the discipline's 'racism' now requires that we adopt a more fine-grained and sophisticated historiographic approach.