The Essai attracted mostly negative reviews from French critics, which Gobineau used as a proof of the correctness of his racial theories, writing "the French, who are always ready to set anything afire—materially speaking—and who respect nothing, either in religion or politics, have always been the world's greatest cowards in matters of science".[77] Later in his life, with the spread of British and American civilization and the growth of Germany, he altered his opinion to believing the white race could be saved. The German-born American historian George Mosse argued that Gobineau projected all of his fear and hatred of the French middle and working classes onto the Asians and the blacks.[78]