Breeding Contempt

by Largent, Mark A.

• ISBN13: 9780813549989
• ISBN10: 0813549981
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-11
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

Most closely associated today with the Nazis and World War II atrocities, eugenics is sometimes described as a government-orchestrated breeding program, other times as a pseudo-science, and often as the first step leading to genocide. Less frequently is it depicted as a movement having links to America-a nation that has historically prided itself for its scientific rationality. But eugenics does have a history in the United States-a history that is largely the story of biologist Charles Davenport. Davenport, who led the Eugenics Records Office in the late nineteenth century, provided physicians, social scientists, and lawmakers with the scientific data and authority that enabled them to coercively sterilize men and women who were thought to be socially deviant, unfit to pass on their genes, and unable to raise healthy children. Moreover, Mark A. Largent shows how even in modern times, remnants of eugenics philosophies persist in this country as certain public figures advocate a brand of birth control-such as progesterone shots for male criminals-that are only steps away from the castrations that were once performed.

Author Biography

Mark A. Largent is an associate professor of science policy and the director of the Science, Technology, Environment, and Public Policy Specialization at Michigan State University in East Lansing. He is the editor of the Studies in Modern Science, Technology, and the Environment series published by Rutgers University Press.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction: In the Name of Progress	p. 1
Nipping the Problem in the Bud	p. 11
Eugenics and the Professionalization of American Biology	p. 39
The Legislative Solution	p. 64
Buck v. Bell and the First Organized Resistance to Coerced Sterilization	p. 96
The Professions Retreat	p. 116
Conclusion: The New Coerced Sterilization Movement	p. 138
Appendix. Bibliography of Twentieth-Century American Biology Textbooks	p. 149
Notes	p. 157
Bibliography	p. 181
Index	p. 201
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