Background

What is it?

A social movement that came around in the early 20th century.
Selective breeding
- Aims to improve a species
Survival of the fittest/Darwinism
Genetic Cleansing
Radical supremacy and purity
Improving the human race by discouraging reproduction by people with inheritable undesired traits or encouraging reproduction of people with inheritable desired traits

Francis Galton was considered the father of the Eugenics movement
He founded the word “eugenics” in 1865
3 stages of eugenics
- Academic matter
- Practical policy
- “it must be introduced into the national consciousness as a new religion”- Galton (www.eugenics-watch.com)
“Eugenics is the science which deals with all influences that improve and develop the inborn qualities of a race”-Galton (eugenics: its definition scope and aim)

After civil war
Progressive era
US
- Took hold because of what was going on socially
Britain wanted to remain competitive with the US.
- US closes borders then so does Britain
- Wanted the most “fit” people working to be competitive

Fundamentally they both defined eugenics in the same way and had a similar goal of creating the most “fit” society.
Galton influenced both
Both ended with Nazi era
“the eugenics movements in Britain and America may be interpreted as middle class attempts at self-assertion, through a command of allegedly scientific expertise, in societies undergoing rapid industrial change” (7)
Differences
- Movement took a different shape in both countries
- US
  - Politically driven
- Britain
  - Socially Driven
  - Scientific