The Races of Europe (Ripley book)

The Races of Europe: A Sociological Study is a 1899 book published by American economist, lecturer, and racial anthropologist William Z. Ripley.

Ripley believed that race was critical to understanding human history, though his work afforded environmental and non-biological factors, such as traditions, a strong weight as well.

He believed, as he wrote in the introduction to The Races of Europe, that: Ripley's book, written to help finance his children's education, became very well respected in anthropology, renowned for its careful writing and careful compilation (and criticism) of the data of many other anthropologists in Europe and the United States.

The conflict between Ripley and Deniker was criticized by Jan Czekanowski, who states that "the great discrepancies between their claims decrease the authority of anthropology", and what is more, he points out that both Deniker and Ripley had one common feature, as they both omitted the existence of an Armenoid race, which Czekanowski claimed to be one of the four main races of Europe, met especially among the Eastern Europeans and Southern Europeans.

The Races of Europe, overall, became an influential book of the Progressive Era in the field of racial taxonomy.