ABSTRACT
Race was a key concept in human genetic research during the first half of the twentieth century. It was especially important with regards to research on human diversity. When examining the history of the race concept in the mid-twentieth century, historians have tended to consider debates in Britain and the USA, the popular anti-racist literature written by geneticists or cultural anthropologists, and the international debate surrounding the UNESCO statement on race. This chapter shows that scientific research and politics are intertwined and entangled. It argues that the continuity, change or marginalization of the concept of race was dependent not only on the political rejection of racialism and the global spread of new scientific concepts, but also on local contexts shaped by specific research conditions, epistemic cultures and political discourses. The Swiss blood group project is typical of human diversity research in the mid-twentieth century, when blood group research was booming around the globe.
