The Spread of Eugenics

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The Early History of Eugenics

Sir Francis Galton

"The English mathematician Sir Francis Galton first coined the term in 1883. He wrote, "Eugenics is the study of the agencies under social control that seek to improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally."1 What Galton saw as a new branch of scientific inquiry became a dogmatic prescription in the ranking and ordering of human worth. His ideas found their most receptive audience at the turn of the century in the United States." http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/13_03/eugenic.shtml

Global Spread

Popularization of Eugenics in the United States

"It was out of this cauldron of social upheaval that the American eugenics movement emerged. It promised prosperity and progress, not through strikes or ugly race riots, but through a new science that would combine advances in the field of genetics with the efficiency of the assembly line. " http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/13_03/eugenic.shtml

Eugenic Education

Lectures

Literature

"Popular literature from the late 1800s up through the 1930s was littered with eugenics-inspired language about bettering the human race." http://ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/archives/22/eugenics-daniel-kevles.html

Schooling

"Under the banner of educational reform, the American eugenics movement captured the hearts and minds of some of the nation's most influential educational researchers and policy makers." http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/13_03/eugenic.shtml

"Eugenic ideology worked its way into the educational reform movements of the 1910s and 20s, playing a key role in teacher training, curriculum development, and school organization. It also provided the guiding ideology behind the first IQ tests. Those tests were used to track students into separate and unequal education courses, establish the first gifted and talented programs, and promote the idea that educational standards could be measured through single-numbered scores. Eugenic ideas about the intellectual worth of students penetrated deeply into the fabric of American education.

Eugenics was a common feature in college curricula. Universities "offering courses in eugenics increased from 44 in 1914 to 376 in 1928."4 A recent analysis of 41 high school biology textbooks used through the 1940s revealed that nearly 90% of them had sections on eugenics.5 Major figures in education were attracted to eugenics and wrote books for teachers and the general public. Eugenics became a top-down model of "education reform" for these educators. A cadre of university experts trained in the latest testing methods and embracing eugenic principles believed they could make schooling a more efficient enterprise. Schools would be the place where students both learned basic eugenic principles and also were tracked into their future roles as dictated by their biological worth." http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/13_03/eugenic.shtml

Government Laws and Regulations

"Eugenic advocates convinced 30 state legislatures to pass involuntary sterilization laws that targeted "defective strains" within the general population, such as the blind, deaf, epileptic, feebleminded, and paupers. On the national level, eugenic supporters played a decisive role in the Congressional passage of the draconian Immigration and Restriction Act of 1924, which established blatantly racist quotas. President Calvin Coolidge embraced the eugenic assumptions behind the law when he declared, "America must be kept American. Biological laws show É that Nordics deteriorate when mixed with other races." http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/13_03/eugenic.shtml

Immigration Acts

Marriage Laws

Steriliaztion Laws

Eugenics in Popular Culture

Fitter Families Competitions

"Not unlike dog shows today, Fitter Family contests pitted American citizens against one another in a battle to determine whose facial characteristics, posture, health, and habits judges deemed the most fit. The winners were usually Aryans who, if not Christian themselves, could pass as models of godly living--which isn't to suggest that the contests were strictly a rural phenomenon. Fitter Family and similar contests were popular throughout the U.S., a visible face of a long-burgeoning movement that was quickly coming to a head: eugenics." http://ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/archives/22/eugenics-daniel-kevles.html

Media Outlets

"Eugenics doctrines were widespread in mainstream magazines like The Saturday Evening Post and newspapers. The people who organized eugenics activities on a local level were the solid middle class of their communities" http://ibiblio.org/pub/electronic-publications/stay-free/archives/22/eugenics-daniel-kevles.html

New Technologies

Oppositions