Read complete books and articles on: Eugenics

Eugenics - yoojĕnˈĭks, study of human genetics and of methods to improve the inherited characteristics, physical and mental, of the human race. Efforts to improve the human race through bettering housing facilities and other environmental conditions are known as euthenics.

Sir Francis Galton, who introduced the term eugenics, is usually regarded as the founder of the modern

Sir Francis Galton, who introduced the term eugenics, is usually regarded as the founder of the modern science of eugenics; his emphasis was on the role of factors under social control that could either improve or impair the qualities of future generations. Modern eugenics is directed chiefly toward the discouragement of propagation among the unfit (negative eugenics) and encouragement of propagation among those who are healthy, intelligent, and of high moral character (positive eugenics). Such a program involves many difficulties, especially that of defining which traits are most desirable.

The first half of the 20th cent. saw extreme coercive application of such principles by governments ranging from miscegenation laws and enforced sterilization of the insane in the United States and other nations to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany. Regulated eugenics continues in some parts of the world; China enacted restrictions on marriages involving persons with certain disabilities and diseases in 1994.

In the United States in recent years, interest in eugenics has centered around genetic screening. It is known, for example, that hemophilia, albinism, and certain structural abnormalities are inheritable. Family gene maps, called pedigrees, can help families with serious diseases avoid having children with the same diseases through genetic counseling, and, increasingly, prospective parents can be tested directly for the presence of undesired genes. If conception has occurred, tests such as amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling can be used to detect certain genetic defects in the fetus.

See J. H. Bennett, Natural Selection, Heredity, and Eugenics (1983); D. J. Kevles, In the Name of Eugenics (1986); M. B. Adams, ed., The Wellborn Science: Eugenics in Germany, France, Brazil, and Russia (1989); E. A. Carlson, The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea (2001).

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Eugenics

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom » Read Now
by Wendy Kline. 218 pgs.

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""Building a Better Race powerfully demonstrates the centrality of eugenics during the first half of the twentieth century. Kline persuasively uncovers eugenics' unexpected centrality to modern assumptions about marriage, the family, and morality, even as late as the 1950s. The book is full of...
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""Building a Better Race powerfully demonstrates the centrality of eugenics during the first half of the twentieth century. Kline persuasively uncovers eugenics' unexpected centrality to modern assumptions about marriage, the family, and morality, even as late as the 1950s. The book is full of surprising connections and stories, and provides crucial new perspectives illuminating the history of eugenics, gender and normative twentieth-century sexuality."--Gail Bederman, author of "Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the US, 1880-1917
"A strikingly fresh approach to eugenics.... Kline's work places eugenicists squarely at the center of modern reevaluations of females sexuality, sexual morality in general, changing gender roles, and modernizing family ideology. She insists that eugenic ideas had more power and were less marginal in public discourse than other historians have indicated."--Regina Morantz-Sanchez, author of "Conduct Unbecoming a Woman: Medicine on Trial in Turn-of-the-Century Brooklyn
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2.

Tomorrow's Children: The Goal of Eugenics » Read Now
by Ellsworth Huntington. 144 pgs.

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...CHILDREN TOMORROWS CHILDREN THE GOAL OF EUGENICS BY ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE DIRECTORS OF THE AMERICAN EUGENICS SOCIETY NEW YORK JOHN WILEY SONS...1935...
3.

Eugenics: A Reassessment » Read Now
by Richard Lynn. 368 pgs.

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Lynn argues that the condemnation of eugenics in the second half of the 20th century went too far and that eugenics needs reassessment. The eugenic objectives of eliminating genetic diseases, increasing intelligence, and reducing personality disorders remain desirable and are achievable by human...
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Lynn argues that the condemnation of eugenics in the second half of the 20th century went too far and that eugenics needs reassessment. The eugenic objectives of eliminating genetic diseases, increasing intelligence, and reducing personality disorders remain desirable and are achievable by human biotechnology. In the 21st century, he maintains, human biotechnology is likely to progress spontaneously in democratic societies and to be used by authoritarian states to increase their economic, scientific, and military power.
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4.

Eugenics Past and Present, in Social Education » Read Now
by Michael J. Berson, Barbara Cruz. 8 pgs.

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...Eugenics Past and Present. by MICHAEL J. BERSON , BARBARA...not be allowed to reproduce? Out of this climate the eugenics movement grew. First coined by Sir Francis Galton...
5.

Darwinism: Critical Reviews from Dublin Review, Edinburgh Review, Quarterly Review ("Natural Inheritance" by Francis Galton begins on p. 293) » Read Now
by Alfred Russell Wallace, Thomas Henry Huxley, James Rowland Angell, J. Mark Baldwin, Francis Galton, Daniel N. Robinson. 564 pgs.

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6.

Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History (Chap. 5 "The Eugenics Movement") » Read Now
by Jonathan Marks. 322 pgs.

...the Race Concept 73 5 THE EUGENICS MOVEMENT 77 A Simple Plan for...Life Better 77 Mendelism in Eugenics 80 American Eugenics: The Peril of the Huddled Masses 81...
7.

Parenthood and Race Culture: An Outline of Eugenics » Read Now
by Caleb Williams Saleeby. 389 pgs.

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...AND RACE CULTURE An Outline of Eugenics BY CALEB WILLIAMS SALEEBY M.D...EDINBURGH, MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF THE EUGENICS EDUCATION SOCIETY, THE SOCIOLOGICAL...183 XI. NEGATIVE...
8.

The Science of Genetics (Chap. 13 "Eugenics") » Read Now
by Charlotte Auerbach. 278 pgs.

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...HUMAN BLOOD GROUPS 62 11 DANGER TO INFANTS 69 12 GENETICS COUNSELING 75 13 EUGENICS 84 14 "ITS A BOY" 100 15 FATHERS GIRL, MOTHERS BOY" 109 16 NATURE AND NURTURE...
9.

DNA and Destiny: Nature and Nurture in Human Behavior (Chap. 3 "The Dark History of Eugenics") » Read Now
by R. Grant Steen. 298 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

...Chapter 3 The Dark History of Eugenics 33 Chapter 4 The Nature...behavior is genetic. 3 The Dark History of Eugenics A large part of the reason why the...intellectual roots...
10.

Technical Fouls: Democratic Dilemmas and Technological Change (Chap. 4 "Weeding Them Out: The Curious Case of Eugenics and Genetic Engineering") » Read Now
by John Kurt Jacobsen. 196 pgs.

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Technical Fouls is an investigation of how contemporary democratic capitalist states govern the development and deployment of their scientific and technological resources.
11.

Clean Living Movements: American Cycles of Health Reform (Chap. 9 "Eugenics, Purity, and Birth Control") » Read Now
by Ruth Clifford Engs. 316 pgs.

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Over the past 200 years, a health reform movement has emerged about every 80 years. These "clean living" cycles surged with, or were tangential to, a religious awakening. Simultaneously with these awakenings, out groups such as immigrants and/or youth were seen to exhibit behaviors that undermined...
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Over the past 200 years, a health reform movement has emerged about every 80 years. These "clean living" cycles surged with, or were tangential to, a religious awakening. Simultaneously with these awakenings, out groups such as immigrants and/or youth were seen to exhibit behaviors that undermined society. Middle class fear of these "dangerous" classes and a desire to eliminate disease, crime, and other perceived health or social problems led to crusades in each of the three reform eras against alcohol, tobacco, drugs, certain foods, and sexual behaviors. A backlash began to emerge from some segments of the population against reform efforts. After the dissipation of the activism phase, laws made during the reform era often became ignored or repealed. With a few exceptions, during the 30 to 40 year ebb of the cycle, the memory of the movement disappeared from public awareness.
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12.

Demography and Degeneration: Eugenics and the Declining Birthrate in Twentieth-Century Britain » Read Now
by Richard A. Soloway. 446 pgs.

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...Demography and Degeneration Eugenics and the Declining Birthrate in Twentieth-Century...Richard A. Demography and degeneration: eugenics and the declining birthrate in...
13.

The Eugenic College of Kantsaywhere, in Utopian Studies » Read Now
by Francis Galton. 20 pgs.

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...changes, but given Galtons importance in the development of eugenics, it is desirable to have an edition that reflects all his changes...the care of those who fail to pass...
14.

Eugenics and Utopia: Sexual Selection from Galton to Morris, in Utopian Studies » Read Now
by Patrick Parrinder. 12 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...Eugenics and Utopia: sexual selection from Galton to Morris by Patrick Parrinder SINCE THE NAZI HOLOCAUST, eugenics has been stigmatized as one of the most pernicious...
15.

Breeding Superman: Nietzsche, Race and Eugenics in Edwardian and Interwar Britain » Read Now
by Dan Stone. 197 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Before the First World War there existed an intellectual turmoil in Britain as great as any in Germany, France or Russia, as the debates over Nietzsche and eugenics in the context of early modernism reveal. With the rise of fascism after 1918, these debates became more ideologically driven, with...
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Before the First World War there existed an intellectual turmoil in Britain as great as any in Germany, France or Russia, as the debates over Nietzsche and eugenics in the context of early modernism reveal. With the rise of fascism after 1918, these debates became more ideologically driven, with science and vitalist philosophy being hailed in some quarters as saviors from bourgeois decadence, vituperated in others as heralding the onset of barbarism. Breeding Superman looks at several of the leading Nietzscheans and eugenicists, and challenges the long-cherished belief that British intellectuals were fundamentally uninterested in race. The result is a study of radical ideas which are conventionally written out of histories of the politics and culture of the period.
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16.

Sterilization for Human Betterment: A Summary of Results of 6,000 Operations in California, (1909-1929) » Read Now
by E. S. Gosney, Paul Popenoe. 204 pgs.

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...pursue more intensively his studies of eugenics and heredity. He is the author of many...subjects and of five standard books on eugenics and heredity. Our executive board...