Ricardo Duchesne


Ricardo Duchesne is a Puerto Rican-born Canadian historical sociologist and former professor at the University of New Brunswick. His main research interests are Western civilization, the rise of the West, and multiculturalism. Duchesne's views on immigration and multiculturalism have been described as racist and white nationalist, which Duchesne has denied.

Career overview

Born in Puerto Rico, Duchesne studied History at McGill University and later at Concordia University, under the supervision of George Rudé. In 1994, he received a doctorate in Social & Political Thought at York University. His Dissertation, "All Contraries Confounded: Historical Materialism and the Transition-to-Capitalism Debate", was awarded the "Doctoral Prize Award" for best dissertation of the year. In 1995, Duchesne was appointed assistant professor in the department of social science at the University of New Brunswick. He retired from his position in 2019.

Ideas

The Uniqueness of Western Civilization

His first book, The Uniqueness of Western Civilization, criticizes the work of world historians, such as Immanuel Wallerstein and Andre Gunder Frank, who he argues are determined to portray history in terms that support the egalitarian idea that all cultures are similar, and who devalue Western civilization and its contributions in the process. Duchesne challenges historians, such as Kenneth Pomeranz, and Bing Wong, whose work posits Chinese economic and intellectual dominance prior to 1800, and maintains that the culture of the West has always been “in a state of variance from the world” at least since classical antiquity. He identifies the roots of the West's restless creativity in the unique aristocratic culture of Indo-Europeans, with its ethos of heroic individualism and competitive spirit.
Martin Hewson, politics and international studies professor at the University of Regina, points to Duchesne's The Uniqueness of Western Civilization as the leading book in what he describes as a trend toward "post-multicultural history". Hewson states that "The main achievement of post-multicultural world history is to have established that there were numerous critical non-economic divergences between Europe and other regions. The West was both peculiar and inventive across many domains." Historian Peter Turchin gave the book a somewhat more negative review, calling the book "thought-provoking", while criticizing Duchesne for "allowing ideology to drive the agenda", rather than adopting a more empirical approach. David Northrup, noted that "although The Uniqueness of Western Civilization may well upset or infuriate world historians, they have much to gain from reading it, since it presents summaries and critiques of a great many works in comparative world, European, and Asian history."

Subsequent work

Duchesne has voiced vehement criticisms of political correctness, multiculturalism and immigration. He has bemoaned what he describes as a "relentless occupation of the West by hordes of Muslims and Africans", and states that "only out of the coming chaos and violence will strong White men rise to resurrect the West." The source of these quotations was located by David Solway in an article Duchesne wrote in March 2017 in his blog with the title "There Is Nothing the Alt-Right Can Do about the Effeminacy of White Men". According to Solway "Duchesne’s sweep of reference in essay is impressively wide-angle, covering the centuries and featuring an informed discussion of Cato the Elder, Plutarch, Polybius, Sallust, Livy, Hume, Hobbes, Marx, Spengler, Adam Smith, Franz Boas and others."
Duchesne also criticizes some conservatives for advancing the idea that Western political identity is based only on universal liberal democratic values that are true for all human beings. He argues that liberalism is uniquely Western and that Western identity is also deeply connected to the ethnic character of Europeans. More recently, Duchesne has argued that civic nationalism is consistent with a strong collective sense of ethnic national identity.
The Enlightenment's cosmopolitan "promotion of peaceful relations among nations and opposition to the slave trade," he has written, should not be interpreted "as a call for a globalist, race-mixed order in the West." He has criticized Isaiah Berlin, among others, for promoting the idea that Johann Gottfried Herder was the original advocate of multiculturalism and racial diversity inside Western nations, arguing instead that Herder was a promoter of the value of distinctive nationalities in the world peacefully co-existing alongside each other in a multicultural world order.
In mid-2014, he created the blog "Council of European Canadians", with the stated purpose that "Canada should remain majority, not exclusively, European in its ethnic composition and cultural character Canada is a nation created by individuals with an Anglo/French/European heritage, not by individuals from diverse races and cultures."
In his 2017 book, Canada in Decay: Mass Immigration, Diversity, and the Ethnocide of Euro-Canadians, he argues that Canada is not a "nation of immigrants" but a nation created by Anglo and French pioneers and settlers. The book also questions what Duchesne argues are double standards of multiculturalism in granting both collective ethnic rights and individual rights to minorities and immigrant groups while, in his view, suppressing the ethno-cultural rights of Canadians of European descent.

Reception

Duchesne has been accused by some of poor scholarship and of holding white nationalist or racist views. Historian R. Charles Weller has described Duchesne's anti-immigration stance as bearing "an uncanny resemblance to white nationalist and racist anti-immigration laws of the interwar period aimed at maintaining a white majority".
In one of his blog posts, Duchesne criticized a motion of the Vancouver council to investigate discriminatory policies imposed by Whites on Chinese immigrants in the city before 1947 as an exercise in manipulating "white guilt", claiming they have "the goal of taking Canada away from the Europeans and transforming the nation into a multicultural and multiracial society." The comments sparked controversy with councillor Kerry Jang saying that the city council's move should not be taken this way, that he considers Duchesne' comments to be hate speech, and that "I don't think he should be teaching". A group of ten University of New Brunswick professors penned an open letter criticizing Duchesne for claiming that immigration was a threat to Western Civilization. The letter described Duchesne's views as "devoid of academic merit". The University of New Brunswick rejected the 2015 complaint on the grounds of academic freedom.
In May 2019, The University of New Brunswick announced that it would review complaints related to Duchesne's public comments and views on race after it was reported that he had been linked to accused white nationalists, and had written blog posts alleging that immigration was part of a conspiracy to advance white genocide. A group of over 100 of Duchesne's colleagues at the University of New Brunswick signed an open letter condemning his views as "racist and without academic merit." The Canadian Historical Association also wrote a letter denouncing Duchesne's work. In response, Duchesne stated signatories did not have "any scholarly background" in immigration or multiculturalism, and said that the charge of racism "has been overused beyond reason...and is used against anyone who questions this diversity". Mark Mercer, president of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship questioned the school's decision to review Duchesne, and argued that Duchesne's work was protected by academic freedom.