Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau ( July 14 , 1816 â '' October 13 , 1882 ) was a French aristocrat . Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau ( 14 July 1816 , Ville-d ` Avray , Hauts-de-Seine -- 13 October 1882 , Turin ) was a French aristocrat , novelist and man of letters who became famous for developing the racialist theory of the Aryan master race in his book An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races ( 1853 â `` 1855 ) . De Gobineau is credited as being the father of modern racial demography .