Reply #2: Some resources on this hidden topic

[Clara T]

Haller, Mark H. EUGENICS: HEREDITARIAN ATTITUDES IN AMERICAN THOUGHT. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1963, 1984. 264 p.
Haller writes that some U.S. academics and policymakers became convinced that the genetic characteristics of criminals, the mentally retarded, the mentally disturbed, and the impoverished were the basis for their failings. Haller also concentrates on scientists and social scientists who applied Darwinian analysis to various racial groups and decided that some races were more advanced than others on the evolutionary scale. These scientists, the author says, thought that the presence of some racial groups in the United States threatened the long-term biological "quality" of the population.

Hatchett, Richard. Brave New Worlds: Perspectives on the American Experience of Eugenics. Pharos 54 (4): 13-18, Fall 1991.
A concise background of eugenics history is provided by Hatchett, who opines that the past experience of eugenics makes it wise to address future uses of knowledge and science's relationship with and responsibility to society. He thinks that the recent eugenic revival focuses on economic utility and a "pale concept of human dignity."


Ludmerer, Kenneth M. GENETICS AND AMERICAN SOIETY: A HISTORICAL APPRAISAL. h Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972. 222 p.
Ludmerer looks at the social climate from 1905 to 1930 that created a situation in which eugenics played a role in public policymaking. He examines genetic theories of the day and how they were adopted by eugenicists. Finally, Ludmerer demonstrates how the political and social events of the time affected the activities of American geneticists.

Reilly, Philip R. THE SURGICAL SOLUTION: A HISTORY OF INVOLUNTARY STERILIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. 190 p.
Reilly details the rise and fall of involuntary sterilization in the U.S. as a means to prevent "mental defectives" from reproducing. From 1907 until the 1960s more than 60,000 men and women were subjected to court-ordered, involuntary sterilization, often without their knowledge.

http://www.csu.edu.au/learning/ncgr/gpi/grn/edures/scope.28.2.html