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The Race refers to the alien invaders of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar and Colonization book series. The aliens, a reptilian species with an extremely long-lived and ponderous species history, call their planet "Home", and style themselves as "The Race."

The Race are governed by an imperial system with two subject planets with subordination and emperor-worship as critical elements of their society. Compared to humans, their society changes extremely slowly, and they expect other alien species to behave the same way. Unlike humans, the Race only mate once a year in a general orgy. After mating, the two genders of the Race show no sexual or emotional interest in one another or their offspring.

After sending probes to Earth (or Tosev 3 as it is known to the Race) about 1141 AD, they wait 800 years to decide to invade and conquer it. They expected human technological development to remain essentially unchanged in the interim, as theirs would have been. They are shocked to arrive in 1941 to find a mechanized society at war, and the book series follows their attempts to pacify, and then govern, parts of the Earth.

The effect of the war on the psyche of the Conquest fleet soldiers is steep. Although they rapidly conquer and hold about half of Earth, they regard it as a dismal failure because the whole of Earth did not fall in days, and because there is still a war being fought at all. The Race view the war much as Americans in the real-world timeline later viewed the Vietnam War: although the Race usually have the upper hand, they are taking staggering (to them) losses due to attrition. Further, the Race have an extremely hierarchical society where authority is never questioned. However, the Race's mounting losses and inability to conquer Earth gradually lead to splits within the ranks of the Fleet officers; disgruntled frontline soldiers in Siberia mutiny against their officers (an unthinkable act in their culture), much as French army units mutinied during World War I, demanding new army leadership that would stop the high attrition they were suffering.

The homeworld of the Race, Tau Ceti 2 ("Home" as they refer to it), is much warmer and drier than Earth: the largest bodies of water are large lakes, and solid ice does not exist outside laboratories (or during winter at the poles, but, even then, rarely). Therefore, soldiers of the Race often complain that Earth is "too cold and wet", and even in tropical climates they still seem to be slightly discomforted. The Race seem to consider the ideal Earth climate to be Egypt, where they establish their command center in Cairo.

The effects of the Conquest could not have been foreseen by either party - least of all the Race, given their ultra-conservative culture. Within months after the start of the Conquest, three human factions (the United States of America, the German Reich, and Russia) had salvaged nuclear material and produced their own atomic bombs. German and British fighter airplanes were re-designed with jet engines and swept wings for faster flight, in an attempt to at least partially close the gap with supersonic Race killercraft. Several other inventions (mostly military, including the bazooka) and tactics were thus developed years ahead of their times in regular history.

By the 1960s (during the time of Colonization, when the Race held most of the Southern Hemisphere of Tosev 3), most cars in America ran on hydrogen. Personal computers were used by an increasing number of workers, thanks to advances in electronics from scavenged Race technology. A primitive form of the Internet was growing. Several trips had been taken aboard reusable space shuttles to space and to the Moon and Mars.

The partial occupation also had a significant effect on culture and society in general. Ginger, discovered to have a narcotic effect on the Race, is widely grown and stored by various governments. Culturally, humans try to take the occupation in stride, e.g. a song by Spike Jones, referring to Jones' song "Der Fuhrer's Face" from the real-world timeline:

When the Fleetlord says, "The Earth is for the Race,"

We SSS! SSS! right in the Fleetlord's face!

When the Fleetlord says, "We rule the Earth from space,"

We SSS! SSS! right in the Fleetlord's face!

A main theme of the story is that the Race's technological and social development occurs at a much slower rate than humans, demonstrated by their first mistake - assuming human technology levels wouldn't significantly increase in "only" 800 years. They are shown constantly having trouble with creating new plans to adapt to unexpected circumstances. For example, the invasion had been progressing for three months before they realized that petroleum refineries are a strategic military element of the human infrastructure. However, the Race are more patient than humans and better at making long-term plans. Also, the Race are intent on conquering Earth, not flattening it, and although they have nuclear weapons, they do not want to turn Earth into an unusable radioactive wasteland by detonating them very often. As a result, they use them sparingly and grudgingly, and only when they feel they have to make an example, such as the destruction of Berlin and Washington, D.C. in the early days of the war, or later in tit-for-tat retaliation strikes against German, American and Russian nuclear attacks on Race military assets.

In the books, ginger has narcotic effects on The Race. It also sends females into oestrus, a side-effect the (all-male) Conquest fleet is unaware of. When the Colonization fleet (consisting of members of both sexes) arrives, the side-effect is discovered — drastically altering gender relations among members of the Race on Earth, as females can now voluntarily enter into a sexual phase. In one case, a male and female Lizard that have been lifelong friends decide that they want to live "married" to each other in a monogamous relationship as a result of taking ginger; they are promptly exiled to the human nations by disgusted Race officials. Another consequence of ginger abuse leads some Race females to "invent" prostitution. The need and capacity for sexual intercourse being limited to the mating cycle, prostitution was not an aspect of Race culture until the discovery of ginger and its effects on Lizard females. A new crime akin to date rape also becomes widespread; since many males become aroused each time a single female tastes ginger (due to the fact that she emits pheromones), some excited males become frustrated enough to covertly give any nearby, unaroused females ginger (in the form of a spiked drink, etc., a la Rohypnol) to force them into estrus against their will so they will be willing to mate.

The Race, being a slow-evolving species, is more often at peace than in conquest. Turtledove wanted to reflect this in their language by their lack of specific words for all things military. The following is a list of various terms in the language of the Race and their equivalent, as well as other new concepts that the Race has had to learn:

• Big Ugly: Derogatory slang term that Race soldiers came up with for humans (known as Tosevites to the Race) after arriving on Earth, referring to the fact that humans are much taller than the Race.
• Fleetlord: Highest ranking officer of the race. One is charged with commanding the conquest fleet, and the other in charge of the colonization fleet.
• Home: Original home system of the Race, Tau Ceti II
• Killercraft: Fighter jet
• Landcruiser: Tank
• Troopcarrier: Armored personnel carrier
• Not-empire: Sovereign state governed by some form other than inherited monarchy (Before arriving on Earth, the Race had no concept of political organization except by hereditary monarchy)
• Snout-counting: Democracy
• Shiplord: Captain of a ship in the Conquest fleet.
• Soldiers' time: A period of military training and conscription, when the Emperor of the Race launches a conquest on a planet. Two "soldiers' times" were declared before the Race came to Earth, corresponding to the two worlds conquered by the Race prior to Earth.
• Spice: Ginger

The Race also have the habit of referring to individual Earth "not-empires" in the native language of the Tosevites living there. The exception is that of Nippon (Japan), which survived as an independent empire following the war. Their peoples are rendered as simple rewordings of such. For example, Nazi Germany is "Deutschland" and its people are the "Deutsche," and in comparison, Britain remains "Britain" (which helps English-language readers) but the British are instead the "Britainish."