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Breeding Contempt: The History of Coerced Sterilization in the United States
Most closely associated with the Nazis and World War II atrocities, eugenics is sometimes described as a government-orchestrated breeding program, other times as a pseudo-science, and often as the first step leading to genocide. Less frequently it is recognized as a movement having links to the United States. But eugenics does have a history in this country, and Mark A. Largent tells that story by exploring one of its most disturbing aspects, the compulsory sterilization of more than 64,000 Americans.
The book begins in the mid-nineteenth century, when American medical doctors began advocating the sterilization of citizens they deemed degenerate. By the turn of the twentieth century, physicians, biologists, and social scientists championed the cause, and lawmakers in two-thirds of the United States enacted laws that required the sterilization of various criminals, mental health patients, epileptics, and syphilitics. The movement lasted well into the latter half of the century, and Largent shows how even today the sentiments that motivated coerced sterilization persist as certain public figures advocate compulsory birth control—such as progesterone shots for male criminals or female welfare recipients—based on the same assumptions and motivations that had brought about thousands of coerced sterilizations decades ago.
The book begins in the mid-nineteenth century, when American medical doctors began advocating the sterilization of citizens they deemed degenerate. By the turn of the twentieth century, physicians, biologists, and social scientists championed the cause, and lawmakers in two-thirds of the United States enacted laws that required the sterilization of various criminals, mental health patients, epileptics, and syphilitics. The movement lasted well into the latter half of the century, and Largent shows how even today the sentiments that motivated coerced sterilization persist as certain public figures advocate compulsory birth control—such as progesterone shots for male criminals or female welfare recipients—based on the same assumptions and motivations that had brought about thousands of coerced sterilizations decades ago.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
228 pages, Hardcover
First published August 30, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 15, 2011
Breeding Contempt is probably one of the most comprehensive monographs on America's long, dark experiment with coercive sterilization. Largent traces the idea from its origins from haphazard attempts by doctors to improve the public welfare by eliminating moral and sexual deviants, to its Progressive-era heyday as the cutting edge frontier of applied biological science (and the nexus of power and knowledge that is always created by applied science), and its legal and social challenges and decline through the 50s and 60s.
The even-handed and symmetric history is the strongest part of the book. Largent does not draw clear boundaries between medical/scientific/legal interventions, and between sterilization for punitive, eugenic, and therapeutic purposes, rather exposing as much of State's intervention on human bodies as possible. However, two major issues are raised, and not fully resolved: the popular dismantling of the eugenics movement by linking it to the Nazis as a project carried out by scholars and not ordinary Americans, as is the standard history, and the recent return of sterilization for pedophiles, in the form of chemical castration. On the whole, however, this is a fascinating, detailed, very readable, and (mercifully) short scholarly work.
The even-handed and symmetric history is the strongest part of the book. Largent does not draw clear boundaries between medical/scientific/legal interventions, and between sterilization for punitive, eugenic, and therapeutic purposes, rather exposing as much of State's intervention on human bodies as possible. However, two major issues are raised, and not fully resolved: the popular dismantling of the eugenics movement by linking it to the Nazis as a project carried out by scholars and not ordinary Americans, as is the standard history, and the recent return of sterilization for pedophiles, in the form of chemical castration. On the whole, however, this is a fascinating, detailed, very readable, and (mercifully) short scholarly work.
October 2, 2011
It's important to realize that eugenics was not isolated to Europe or Germany it was also widely practiced here. This is a scholarly tome that breaks away from traditional "great man" views (leaders, prominent figures etc) and takes a wider look at the times, their views and the assumptions behind tens of thousands of forced sterilizations of those with genetic illness, mental deficiencies, criminal tendencies, welfare recipients, and others.
I'll write a more thorough review no doubt when I finish it.
I'll write a more thorough review no doubt when I finish it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews