Race: A Study in Superstition by Jacques Barzun. Harper & Row. (1965). Revised edition. With date code of 'mo' (apparently meaning the December 1964 printing) on the copyright page. 5 3/4" x 8 1/2" xxiv, 263 pages Hardcover with dust jacket. DUST JACKET: Light edge wear. Heavy bumping to the top of the dj spine.  Some light wrinkling along the spine on the back panel (possibly from publication). Otherwise, no unusual folds or creases. No tears. No clips. No missing pieces. Not price-clipped with dj price sticker of $5.95 replacing the original price. BOOK: Bright gilt lettering and the spine and Harper torch on the front cover. Light cover edge wear.
 Otherwise, no previous owner markings. No tears, folds or creases to pages. Binding is tight with no looseness to pages. Not ex-library, not remaindered and not a facsimile reprint. For sale by Jon Wobber, bookseller since 1978. KJ02a

     "In this preface to the new revised edition of this classic book, originally published in 1937, Mr Barzun says "Race-thinking rests on abstraction -  singling out traits that are observed, accurately or not, in one or more individuals, and making of these traits a composite character which is then assumed to be uniform, or at least prevailing, throughout the group."
      This kind of thinking he defines as superstition. But on top of spontaneous race-thinking, there is race theorizing, "which tries to make the haphazard abstractions of people rational and even scientific." Mr Barzun's book deals with this "super-superstition", tracing in detail the inconsistent racial fantasies developed in Europe during the last 180 years and showing in the process that the commonplace and the learned views of race are equally ill-founded." - From a blurb on the dust jacket.