Political Biology : Science and Social Values in Human Heredity From Eugenics to Epigenetics

This book explores the socio-political implications of human heredity from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present postgenomic moment. It discusses eugenics, the modern synthesis, and epigenetics. Meloni argues that thanks to findings in epigenetics we may be witnessing a return to 'soft heredity'. "This book explores the socio-political implications of human heredity from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present postgenomic moment. It addresses three main phases in the politicization of heredity: the peak of radical eugenics (1900-1945), characterized by an aggressive ethos of supporting the transformation of human society via biological knowledge; the repositioning, after 1945, of biological thinking into a liberal-democratic, human rights framework; and the present postgenomic crisis in which the genome can no longer be understood as insulated from environmental signals. In Political Biology, Maurizio Meloni argues that thanks to the ascendancy of epigenetics we may be witnessing a return to soft heredity - the idea that these signals can cause changes in biology that are themselves transferable to succeeding generations. This book will be of great interest to scholars across science and technology studies, the philosophy and history of science, and political and social theory" -- From the publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xi Political Biology and the Politics of Epistemology....Pages 1-31 Nineteenth Century: From Heredity to Hard Heredity....Pages 32-63 Into the Wild: The Radical Ethos of Eugenics....Pages 64-92 A Political Quadrant....Pages 93-135 Time for a Repositioning: Political Biology after 1945....Pages 136-158 Four Pillars of Democratic Biology....Pages 159-187 Welcome to Postgenomics: Reactive Genomes, Epigenetics, and the Rebirth of Soft Heredity....Pages 188-209 Conclusions: The Quandary of Political Biology in the Twenty-First Century....Pages 210-223 Back Matter....Pages 224-284