ABSTRACT
In a footnote to The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber made an interesting observation on the “racial” dimension of the English Revolution, a dimension which may serve as an unexpected point of departure for our present concerns on race and revolution in the Americas. Weber noted:
One who shared the philosophy of history of the Levellers would be in the fortunate position of being able to attribute this in turn to racial differences. They believed themselves to be defenders of the Anglo-Saxon birthright, against the descendants of William the Conqueror and the Normans. It is astonishing enough that it has not yet occurred to anyone to maintain that the plebian Roundheads were roundheaded in the anthropometric sense!1
