The unfit : a history of a bad idea

The Unfit, by Elof Carlson, explores the sources of a movement - negative eugenics - that was used to justify the Holocaust, which claimed millions of innocent lives in World War II. The title reflects the nearly three centuries of belief that some people are socially unfit by virtue of a defective biology, and echoes an earlier theory of degeneracy, dating to biblical antiquity, in which some people were deemed unfit because of some transgression against religious law. The author presents the first biological theory of degeneracy - onanism - and then follows the development of degeneracy theory throughout the nineteenth century and its application to a variety of social classes. The key intellectual theories and their proponents form the framework of this exploration, which includes the concepts of evolution and heredity and how they were applied to social problems. These ideas are followed into the twentieth century with the development of theories of positive and negative eugenics, the establishment of compulsory sterilization laws, racism and anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust. This story of misapplied science and technology is one that still haunts humanity in the twenty-first century. The ghost of eugenics recurs in many guises during debates and controversies about intelligence testing, genetic screening, prenatal diagnosis, gene therapy, new reproductive strategies, and uses of our genomic information. Carlson ends his discussion of the history of humanity in this arena with an exploration of the future of genetics that is based on new technologies and application of the Human Genome Project findings, as well as a discussion of the death of the old eugenics and of the problems that will not go away, including our ambivalence about our own biology. Front Cover ......Page 1 Title Page ......Page 4 Copyright ......Page 6 Dedication ......Page 7 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Chronology of the Biological Concept of Unfit People......Page 12 Introduction......Page 17 Part I: Before Darwin......Page 24 CHAPTER 1 Who Are the Unfit?......Page 25 CHAPTER 2 The Unfit in Biblical Times......Page 33 CHAPTER 3 Self-Pollution and Declining Health......Page 39 CHAPTER 4 Degeneracy Theory: Identifying the Innately Depraved and the Victims of Vicious Upbringing......Page 55 CHAPTER 5 Dangerous Classes and Social Degeneracy......Page 73 CHAPTER 6 Poor Laws and the Descent to Degeneracy......Page 89 CHAPTER 7 The Perfectibility of Man Confronts Vice and Misery......Page 111 CHAPTER 8 Evolutionary Ethics before Darwin......Page 125 CHAPTER 9 Hereditary Units and the Pessimism of the Germ Plasm......Page 145 Part II: Eugenics Takes the Spotlight......Page 175 CHAPTER 10 The Jukes and the Tribe of Ishmael......Page 177 CHAPTER 11 A Minor Prophet of Democracy......Page 199 CHAPTER 12 Isolating the Unfit through Compulsory Sterilization......Page 215 CHAPTER 13 The Emergence of Two Wings of the Eugenics Movement......Page 247 CHAPTER 14 Europe’s Undesirables Replace the Domestic Unfit......Page 263 CHAPTER 15 Eugenics Becomes an International Movement......Page 281 Part III: Racism, the Holocaust, and Beyond......Page 295 CHAPTER 16 Racism and Human Inequality......Page 297 CHAPTER 17 Jews as People, Race, Culture, Religion, and Victims......Page 313 CHAPTER 18 The Smoke of Auschwitz......Page 331 CHAPTER 19 The Abandonment of Eugenics by Genetics......Page 353 CHAPTER 20 The Future of Eugenics......Page 377 CHAPTER 21 Dealing with Life’s Imperfections......Page 399 Appendices......Page 412 APPENDIX 1 Flow Diagrams and the History of Ideas......Page 413 APPENDIX 2 Useful Books on the History of Eugenics......Page 421 APPENDIX 3 Bibliography......Page 425 Index......Page 443 Back Cover ......Page 468
The Unfit, by Elof Carlson, explores the sources of a movement--negative eugenics--that was used to justify the Holocaust, which claimed millions of innocent lives in World War II. The title reflects the nearly three centuries of belief that some people are socially unfit by virtue of a defective biology, and echoes an earlier theory of degeneracy, dating to biblical antiquity, in which some people were deemed unfit because of some transgression against religious law. The author presents the first biological theory of degeneracy--onanism--and then follows the development of degeneracy theory throughout the nineteenth century and its application to a variety of social classes. The key intellectual theories and their proponents form the framework of this exploration, which includes the concepts of evolution and heredity and how they were applied to social problems. These ideas are followed into the twentieth century with the development of theories of positive and negative eugenics, the establishment of compulsory sterilization laws, racism and anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust. This story of misapplied science and technology is one that still haunts humanity in the twenty-first century. The ghost of eugenics recurs in many guises during debates and controversies about intelligence testing, genetic screening, prenatal diagnosis, gene therapy, new reproductive strategies, and uses of our genomic information. Carlson ends his discussion of the history of humanity in this arena with an exploration of the future of genetics that is based on new technologies and application of the Human Genome Project findings, as well as a discussion of the death of the old eugenics and of the problems that will not go away, including our ambivalence about our own biology. Carlson's history of degeneracy theory, the idea that certain people are biologically disposed to become socially unfit or "degenerate," examines the birth of both good and bad eugenics movements. While good eugenics movements focus on people whose needs may require intense social attention and expensive social investments, bad eugenics movements call for isolation if not eradication and genocide. He brings the history into the present day, where the potential misapplication of DNA science and social attitudes toward the human genome could lead to similar movements THE UNFIT: A HISTORY OF A BAD IDEA explores the sources of a movement that was used to justify, at least among those who had the authority to implement it, the final solution of Holocaust, which claimed several millions of innocent lives in World War II.