Description
Book SynopsisExplores the long and unsettled history of eugenics in the United States. This book includes shocking details demonstrating that eugenics continues to inform institutional and reproductive injustice.
Trade Review"...a fascinating and mutifaceted contribution to twentieth-century American history." * Social History *
"...a rich narrative of the social, political, and scientific life of the nation, a narrative in which gender and race are central to understanding America's continuing fascination with better breeding." * American Historical Review *
"Stern meticulously demonstrates the extent to which California eugenics was simultaneously distinct from eugenics in other states and also a major force in the national movement." * American Studies *
"...Stern has made a significant contribution to the historical record of eugenics." * Isis *
"With Eugenic Nation Alexandra Stern has refocused the geographical and chronological lens generally used to examine hereditarian impulses in American history. The result is a fascinating and essential contribution to the scholarship on American eugenics." * Journal of the History of Biology *
"Stern's discussion of eugenics and the family are of particular interest to those debating the relationship between biology and gender. . . . [and] it does provide material for a more nuanced discussion of how sociologists should proceed in the era of the human genome." * American Journal of Sociology *
"Eugenic Nation stunningly traces the cultural continuities in 'better breeding' that refuse to stay in the past." * Western Historical Quarterly *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Preface to the Second Edition Abbreviations Introduction 1. Race Betterment and Tropical Medicine in Imperial San Francisco 2. Quarantine and Eugenic Gatekeeping on the US-Mexican Border 3. Instituting Eugenics in California 4. "I Like to Keep My Body Whole": Reconsidering Eugenic Sterilization in California 5. California's Eugenic Landscapes 6. Centering Eugenics on the Family 7. Contesting Hereditarianism: Reassessing the 1960s Conclusion Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index
