Abstract

Sections 1 and 2 of the paper analyze the 18th- and 19th- century discourse on national characters, highlighting its duplicity: the discourse developed on the historical-political level with regard to the European populations, while it involved the anthropological terrain when it concerned the «savage» peoples of the colonies. Section 3 shows how, during the second half of the 19th century, the anthropological perspective took over; and how, increasingly homogeneous, the discourse on national characters has taken on an increasingly marked naturalistic figure. Probably due to the radicalization of international, social and political conflicts, this change took place with particular vigor in the discursive framework of new forms of knowledge united by fear and aversion for the masses and crowds.