Description
Book SynopsisPresents the cultural history of eugenics in America that emphasizes the movement's central, continuing interaction with popular notions of gender and morality. This book shows how eugenics could seem a viable solution to problems of moral disorder and sexuality, especially female sexuality, during the first half of the twentieth century.
Trade Review"Concise and provocative.... Kline demonstrates how eugenicists refurbished Victorian morality, transforming it into a selfconsciously modern notion of 'reproductive morality.'... Kline also establishes the continuity between early, racist eugenic ideas and the pronatalist rhetoric that survives today - further debunking the myth that American eugenics died after the revelations of the Nazi Holocaust.... This is an important book for historians of science, medicine, race, gender, and public policy." - Journal of American History"
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Motherhood, Morality, and the "Moron": The Emergence of Eugenics in America 2. From Segregation to Sterilization: Changing Approaches to the Problem of Female Sexuality 3. "Sterilization without Unsexing": Eugenics and the Politics of Reproduction 4. A New Deal for the Child: Ann Cooper Hewitt and Sterilization in the 1930s 5. "Marriage Is Not Complete without Children": Positive Eugenics, 1930-1960 Epilogue: Building a Better Family Notes Selected Bibliography Index
