Albert Einstein's racist views revealed in newly-published travel diaries

Albert Einstein's newly-published travel diaries reveal his racist views
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Albert Einstein’s racist views have been revealed in newly published travel diaries written by the world famous scientist in the 1920s.

The diaries, written between October 1922 and March 1923, track his experience in the Far East and Middle East.

Einstein, who would later in life advocate for civil rights in the US, makes sweeping and negative statements in the entries.

He brands the Chinese “industrious, filthy, obtuse people” and in other entries he calls China "a peculiar herd-like nation," and "more like automatons than people".

The scientist also claimed there is "little difference" between Chinese men and women.

Einstein travelled from Spain to the Middle East and Sri Lanka before moving on to China and Japan.

The recently-published ‘The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922 – 1923’ has not before been reproduced as a standalone volume in English.

The entries, edited by Ze'ev Rosenkranz, were published by Princeton University Press.

The scientist was later noted for his humanitarianism.

He emigrated to the US in 1933 after the rise of Adolf Hitler. The Jewish scientist described racism as "a disease of white people" in a 1946 speech.

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