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War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race
by
Edwin Black
In War Against the Weak, award-winning investigative journalist Edwin Black connects the crimes of the Nazis to a pseudoscientific American movement of the early twentieth century called eugenics. Based on selective breeding of human beings, eugenics began in laboratories on Long Island but ended in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Ultimately, over 60,000 "unf...more
Hardcover, 550 pages
Published
September 25th 2003
by Dialog Press
(first published 2003)
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This was the first book I read about the eugenics movement, and I was surprised that the first big eugenics laws were enacted here in the US. Germany learned from us and from England. There are two different kinds of eugenics - positive (breed the best people to improve the human race) and negative (sterilize the "unfit") - and doctors, politicians, and hospital administrators latched onto negative eugenics and forcibly sterilized thousands of mentally and physically disabled people ...more
gives an in depth account of one of the US's darkest secrets. can get a little too full at times, as there is alot of information thrown in, and it can be watered down. for the most part, its historical documentation that makes connections to how remnants of eugenics are still visible today. (in particular, margeret sanger as a proponent of eugenics. and margeret sanger is.. one of the founders of planned parenthood. think about it...)
I was proud to be American for at least an instant! Of course, this book inevitably became a biased mess of ideas that succeeded in merely watering down the history of American eugenics.
Ok, so...good with caveats.
The book is divided into three distinct Parts: The Birth of Eugenics, Eugenics and World War II, and the change from Eugenics to Genetics.
The first part is impeccably well constructed, with a clear relationship between the history and the influence that eugenics had on social policy. There's plenty of detail and documentation, and the author is clearly well versed in the minutiae of the subject. Eugenics as a "science" at the dawn o...more
The book is divided into three distinct Parts: The Birth of Eugenics, Eugenics and World War II, and the change from Eugenics to Genetics.
The first part is impeccably well constructed, with a clear relationship between the history and the influence that eugenics had on social policy. There's plenty of detail and documentation, and the author is clearly well versed in the minutiae of the subject. Eugenics as a "science" at the dawn o...more
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Exhaustively researched. 'Eugenics' is a junk science that flowered around the turn of the century in America. Eugenicists sought racial purity, to get rid of 'defectives' like the developmentally disabled, diseased, elderly, and of course every race except Nordics. Eugenics caught on and went to further extremes in Germany by the '30s. In America thousands of blacks, poor, epileptics, natives, etc were sterilized (rendered unable to reproduce); several states also outlawed marriage between ra...more
Very detailed overview of the history of the Eugenics movement from the Mid 1800s to the present day renamed Genetics and Genomics sciences.
While much of this information has already been available in other books, Black puts it into clear linear fashion to show the development from British Colonial Racists, to American Racists, back to Europe thanks to the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations, to the German Nazis who as Hess said, "National Socialism is nothing but applied biol...more
While much of this information has already been available in other books, Black puts it into clear linear fashion to show the development from British Colonial Racists, to American Racists, back to Europe thanks to the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations, to the German Nazis who as Hess said, "National Socialism is nothing but applied biol...more
The idea of the "Master Race" did not originate with Hitler and the Nazis. It began much earlier and was endorsed in many countries (including the U.S.!) beginning in the 1800's. Humans were measured and analyzed and many discussions were done about weeding out defective members of society ("culling the herd"). If farmers could improve their livestock by selective breeding, why couldn't the human race be enhanced with the same techniques? Certain groups (blacks, Jews, aborigi...more
Black deserves much credit for helping to shatter the myth that Nazism happened because Hitler was a madman. In War Against the Weak, just like in "IBM and the Holocaust," Black answers the "how could the Holocaust happen?" question with an uncomfortable answer: with the material backing of America's wealthy and powerful.
Just as IBM custom-designed punch cards so the Nazi's could more efficiently track and kill Jews and other victims, the Carnegie and Rockefell...more
Just as IBM custom-designed punch cards so the Nazi's could more efficiently track and kill Jews and other victims, the Carnegie and Rockefell...more
I learned a lot about the eugenics movement and the American influence in the field that ultimately led to the holocaust. It was very dense, but not difficult to read. I agree with some of the other reviews of this book that the author repeats entire passages throughout the book. I noticed that some paragraphs were word for word repetitions. I also get annoyed when authors write things like ...a man was in prison for starting a rebellion. He had ideas about a making Germany great again...etc. Th...more
Wow! Hello! So didn't know anything in this book. American eugenics was instrumental in Adolf Hitler's terrible thoughts and acts. Americans! Sick! Who else believed in superior race and "bad blood?" President Theodore Roosevelt, Alexander Graham Bell, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Ms. Sanger who spread the Birth Control Movement and Planned Parenthood and many more
I would like to finish this book. After searching used book stores, Amazon and other likely used book sources without any luck I put my name on the wait list at the only library in town with a copy. I read for two weeks, then returned it. What I read was informative...I learned so much! I would love to finish!
Finally finished this after a hiatus. I was already familiar with American Eugenics and had read The Black Stork previously. I had no idea, however, how deep and quacky eugenics went. If only eugenics could be written off as junk science, but it became the ideology of Nazi Germany. The cooperation and collaboration between US and Nazi researchers, especially after the US side knew what was going on, is frightening. Unfortunately, Americans still love junk science today.
The book was...more
The book was...more
Super interesting but very depressing. The first 2/3 of the book are much stronger than the last 1/3 that tries to deal with the modern application of eugenics. I read this one for school, so unless you are interested in part of American history, this might be one to skip.
I just wanted to watch Superbad after this book. It's full of heavy, depressing facts. But if you can get past all that, it will either turn you into a conspiracy theorist or a more informed citizen. If nothing else, it can give you some insight so we, as a society, can prevent something similar from happening again.
I had worked on a reearcg project demonstrating how genealogy research was falsified to support eugenics theories; and this book expanded my knowledge of the movement and its impact in America.
This book is an eye-opener, revealing much about the darker secrets in America's past. Mr. Black delves deeply into practices ranging from the Nineteenth Century and following up through today.
Sometimes Edwin Black's writing seems a bit dry but his thoroughness is worth it. On the whole, like his IBM and The Holocaust, this era of American history is far too neglected and absolutely has to be told and should be**Cliche Alert** required reading.
a fascinating read. Can be a little conspiracy theory-esque at time but fascinating nonetheless.
Really thought Edwin Black was more popular
Interesting subject matter but was distracted by the immense amount of detail and individual/organizational story lines.
This book exposes a terrible, now often forgotten political agenda in the not-so-distant American past. It is a terrible truth to reveal, but one that must be exposed. Weighing in at almost 600 pages, this dense tome is a stark record of our eugenics policies and will definitely leave you shaken. Though we often "know" about our past, it is something again to read the facts and actual quotes of the times. Painful, racist revelations and psuedoscientific politics are fully explored.
Hitler wasn't the first one with idea of eugenics and creating the race of masters. The Americans were first, but they did it in less violent ways. But still Alabama had anti-miscegination legislation til 2000 and in 2009 in Louisiana Justice of the Peace refused to make offical interracial marriage.
Even rich families as the Rockeffelers were involved. And the world thinks that America is crazy.
Even rich families as the Rockeffelers were involved. And the world thinks that America is crazy.
I gave this book 4 stars because of the topic and the vast information provided about eugenics in America. However, it was not a particularly well-written book, and it was poorly edited. Several paragraphs were repeated almost in their entirety throughout the book. The author also has a clear agenda, and his bias can been seen in some of his reporting. All in all, though, it is an eye-opening book.
had to read for class..give it 3.5 stars..really can get you mad during parts of the book...
An interesting look at the eugenics movement and how it shaped the Holocaust... a little long-winded at times...
started reading this and got distracted. Dianna's reading it now, and when she's done, I'm going to read it from the start, then lend it out.
America was sterilizing people of colour and of low income. IBM was counting them up, not just for Hoover, but for Hitler. Winston Churchill was a member of his local "Eugenics" society. Throws some light on why Churchill called it "the Unnecessary War". Horrifying, damning, required reading.
Lindsay
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people interested in lesser-known aspects of American history
Shelves:
history,
nonfiction
Authoritative recounting of the eugenics movement's international origins --- first conceived in England, readily accepted, promulgated and adapted into policy in America, and finally taken to its logical conclusion in Nazi Germany.
I started in on this one got about 70 pages in and put it aside for no particular reason. Should finish it.
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