Keene State College Psychology Department
Eugenics Links
The Eugenics movement of the late 19th and the 20th (and 21st) centuries is associated with Francis Galton's name - it was he who invented the term and vigorously promoted eugenics as a social and political program. However, eugenicist ideas were common among the privileged classes at the time and the movement spread rapidly in England, Germany, and the USA especailly. Of particular interest is the relatively successful attempt made by eugenicists to influence public opinion and to have their political project made law. The Nazi government in Germany studied US laws mandating the sterilization of ``feebleminded'' citizens during the development of their ``racial hygiene'' program that led to the establishment of concentration camps and the murder of millions of Europeans.
- Eugenics movement reaches its height - an overview from ``PBS Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries''
- Cursed by Eugenics - a Time magazine article from 1999 in a section called ``The Future of Medicine: From Mendel to Monica'' (one can see where everybody's mind was in 1999)
- Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement at the DNA Learning Center of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory - includes an informative introductory essay (Flash browser plug-in required to view most of the images)
- Eugenics - an annotated bibliography of scholarly sources on eugenics at the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature at Georgetown University
- Eugenics Bibliography - an extensive listing with a useful introduction from the University of Virginia's Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy
- The NeoEugenics' [sic] Web Site - an example of contemporary racist advocacy of eugenics ideas in the US
Last modified: March 21, 2001 Tony Stavely tstavely@keene.edu