Controlling
Human Heredity: 1865 to the Present
by Diane B. Paul
ALL the world knows of Adolf Hitler and the
atrocities committed under his leadership during the Nazi era. But were
he and his small band of accomplices alone? Psychiatrists supplied the
flawed theories and ideas of eugenics and biochemistry which provided the
justification for wholesale slaughter of the "inferior". Timely reading
because modern psychiatry is treading down the same path once again - forgetting
about healing and concentrating instead on biology, genetics, and brain
chemistry.
Book Summary
Booknews, Inc., August 1, 1996
Paul (political science, U. of Massachusetts
and Harvard U.) traces the history of modern eugenics and explores the
implications of eugenic thought in the context of advanced genetic medicine.
She delves into such questions as how eugenics came to be so widely appealing,
what events shaped its development, whose interests it served, why it fell
in disrepute, and whether it survives in other guises. Addressed to general
readers and non-specialist students. Paper edition (unseen), $12.50. Annotation
c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
In the late nineteenth and the early twentieth
century, it was widely assumed that society ought to foster the breeding
of those who possessed favorable traits and discourage the breeding of
those who did not. Controlled human breeding, "eugenics" as it was labeled
by Francis Galton, seemed only good common sense. How did eugenics come
to exert such powerful and broad appeal? What events shaped its direction?
Whose interests did it finally serve? Why did it fall into disrepute? Has
it survived in other guises? These are some of the questions that Diane
Paul sets out to answer - questions that have acquired a new urgency in
light of developments in genetic medicine. The eugenics movement appeared
to be dead - associated with race and class prejudice, in particular the
crimes of the Third Reich - or was it just sleeping? Has eugenics returned
in the guise of medical genetics? In Controlling Human Heredity, Professor
Paul aims to bridge the gap between expert and lay understandings of the
history of eugenics and thereby enrich the debate on the perplexing contemporary
choices in genetic medicine.
Customer Comments
lovett@uclink4.berkeley.edu
from Laura Lovett, Berkeley, CA, December 30, 1997
Great Introductory Survey of the History
of Eugenics
Diane Paul has produced a readable and brief
introduction to the history of eugenic thought. After an excellent overview
chapter, Paul proceeds chronologically from Francis Galton and social Darwinism
through twentieth century campaigns for sterilization and immigration restriction
in the name of eugenic reform. Paul convincingly argues that eugenics has
been used by proponents of a variety of causes and political persuasions,
left and right. With announcements every week of the discovery of the gene
for some ailment, Paul's book is both timely and important. As the debates
over cloning, genetic screening, or gene therapy continue, this book will
provide a much needed historical context that can only help as we reflect
on today's eugenics.
From L. Heuser - Choice
Clearly written and well researched,
Paul's study carefully represents opposing views on eugenics and eugenic
solutions. Although this work increases historical understanding of the
eugenics movement, only one chapter discusses whether eugenics has in fact
returned as medical genetics. A more complete analysis of human genetics
today would have added considerably to Paul's thesis. Nevertheless, this
is an interesting, highly readable book that addresses an important social
issue.
From Regina Morantz-Sanches - Reviews
in American History
Because Diane Paul's {work}
is primarily a history of the political and social power of ideas, patient
voices are absent from her account. Instead, we are treated to a densely
informative narrative on the theories of Galton, Darwin, Alfred Russell
Wallace, and other key players in the development of nineteenth-century
evolutionary thinking. . . . Paul is especially good at demonstrating the
way social conservatives and socialist reformers could both embrace eugenics
and use it to support political reforms. . . . Paul concentrates primarily
on the United States, but notes developments in other countries as well,
allowing her to make some important points. . . . Paul's otherwise insightful
text neglects to mention the revival of eugenics in the form of sociobiology,
nor does she note the public tendency to devour pat explanations of race
and the intractable problem of differential achievement in the form of
best sellers like The Bell Curve.
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