The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould

THE MISMEASURE OF MAN

stood above science as a primary source for the rationalization of
social order. But the American debate on polygeny may represent
the last time that arguments in the scientific mode did not form a
first line of defense for the status quo and the unalterable quality
of human differences. The Civil War lay just around the corner,
but so did 1859 and Darwin's Origin of Species. Subsequent argu-
ments for slavery, colonialism, racial differences, class structures,
and sex roles would go forth primarily under the banner of sci-
ence.