Eugenics at the Edges of Empire : New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa

"This volume explores the history of eugenics in four Dominions of the British Empire: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. These self-governing colonies reshaped ideas absorbed from the metropole in accord with local conditions and ideals. Compared to Britain (and the US, Germany, and Scandinavia), their orientation was generally less hereditarian and more populist and agrarian. It also reflected the view that these young and enterprising societies could potentially show Britain the way -- if they were protected from internal and external threat. This volume contributes to the increasingly comparative and international literature on the history of eugenics and to several ongoing historiographic debates, especially around issues of race. As white-settler societies, questions related to racial mixing and purity were inescapable, and a notable contribution of this volume is its attention to Indigenous populations, both as targets and on occasion agents of eugenic ideology."-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction: Eugenics as a Transnational Subject: The British Dominions (Diane B. Paul, John Stenhouse, Hamish G. Spencer)....Pages 1-19 ‘Liberty of the Nation’: Eugenics in Australia and New Zealand and the Limits of Illiberalism (Stephen Garton)....Pages 21-40 Eugenics in Canada: Choice, Coercion and Context (Erika Dyck)....Pages 41-61 The Nature of Eugenic Thought and Limits of Eugenic Practice in Interwar Saskatchewan (Alex Deighton)....Pages 63-84 Eugenic Sterilization in New Zealand: The Story of the Mental Defectives Amendment Act of 1928 (Hamish G. Spencer)....Pages 85-106 Debating Clause 21: ‘Eugenic Marriage’ in New Zealand (Angela Wanhalla)....Pages 107-127 Undesirable Bill’s Undesirables Bill: William Pember Reeves and Eugenics in Late-Victorian New Zealand (John Stenhouse)....Pages 129-151 Thinking Dangerous Thoughts: Post-primary Education and Eugenics in Australia: 1905–1939 (Ross L. Jones)....Pages 153-174 ‘Of Eugenic Interest’? Baby Shows Before the Great War (Caroline Daley)....Pages 175-194 Sir Robert Stout as Freethinker and Eugenics Enthusiast (Emma M. Gattey)....Pages 195-217 Revisiting Three Eugenic Moments: 1903, 1928, 1937: The Disappointments and Hopes of Antipodean Progressives (Charlotte Macdonald)....Pages 219-241 Truby King, Infant Welfare and the Boundaries of Eugenics (Diane B. Paul)....Pages 243-265 ‘Aristocrats of Knowledge’: Māori Anthropologists and the Survival of the ‘Race’ (Barbara Brookes)....Pages 267-288 Eugenics and the Maintenance of White Supremacy in Modern South Africa (Susanne M. Klausen)....Pages 289-309 Back Matter ....Pages 311-320