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Carleton Putnam (December 19, 1901 – March 5, 1998) was an American businessman, writer and advocate for racial segregation. He graduated from Princeton University in 1924 and received a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Columbia Law School in 1932. He founded Chicago & Southern Airlines in 1933 which, in 1953, merged with Delta Air Lines. Putnam later served as chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines and held a seat on its board of directors until his death.
Psychologist Henry Garrett wrote the introduction. In his review of the book for the American Bar Association Journal, Stuart B. Campbell wrote:
Putnam hoped the book would educate the American people "in the principles upon which our republic was based and through which it grew to greatness. Neither equality nor integration were among them."
After Race and Reason: A Yankee View was made required reading for high school students in Louisiana, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA) passed a resolution condemning it. Louisiana-born Neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan leader and former politician David Duke has cited that reading Race and Reason in when he was a teenager in 1964 and taking in the assertions in the book led to what Duke called his "enlightenment", this book and what it purported convinced Duke that blacks were inferior to whites and that whites were superior to them in every way, leading to a racist worldview. Ultimately, it was Putnam's Race and Reason book that changed David Duke's life and led him to a lifetime of racism and by 1999, Duke was the most famous racist in the United States.
Putnam also wrote a biographical book on Theodore Roosevelt's youth that was praised by Edmund Morris, the author of the best known biography of that president. Putnam admired Roosevelt's belief that "Teutonic (and) English blood is the source of American greatness".
Carleton Putnam died of pneumonia on March 5, 1998. He was survived by his wife, Esther Mackenzie Willcox Auchincloss, a daughter, three grandchildren, a stepdaughter, and three step-grandchildren. He was previously married to Lucy Chapman Putnam.
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Categories: 1901 Births, 1998 Deaths, 20th-century American Biographers, 20th-century American Businesspeople, 20th-century American Male Writers, American Airline Chief Executives, American Male Non-fiction Writers, American Political Writers, American Segregationists, Businesspeople From New York City, People Involved In Race And Intelligence Controversies, Proponents Of Scientific Racism, Writers From New York City, Deaths From Pneumonia In Virginia, Columbia Law School Alumni, 20th-century American Episcopalians
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