Heredity in Relation to Eugenics

by Charles Benedict Davenport

A masterful, thoroughly researched and documented survey of the effects of inheritance upon positive and negative human traits—including physical, mental, and racial attributes—this book was acknowledged as the best work of its kind and used for decades as the standard US college textbook on the topic. Prepared at a time when Western academics could still write freely about the supremacy of nature over nurture, and of the important effects of race and racial mixing, Professor Davenport’s book provides a wealth of detail—including meticulously researched family trees—which prove conclusively that every human attribute, both positive and negative, can be traced back to an individual’s biological inheritance—and this includes psychology, intelligence, character, and behavior. Lavishly illustrated with over 180 charts and diagrams.

Genres: Eugenics, Science, Race

298 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2011

About the author

Charles Benedict Davenport (1866–1944) was one of America’s most prominent eugenicists and biologists. He attended Harvard University, earning a Ph.D. in Biology in 1892, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1912. A personal friend and devoted follower of the founder of the science of eugenics, Francis Galton, Davenport became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he founded the Eugenics Record Office in 1910. During his time there, he began a series of investigations into aspects of the inheritance of human personality and mental traits, and over the years he generated hundreds of papers on the genetics of alcoholism, pellagra, criminality, feeblemindedness, bad temper, intelligence, manic depression, and the biological effects of race mixture.

Reviews

[Krieger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A decent introduction to Eugenics. Most of the book consists of descriptions of various congenital diseases, but interspersed throughout is a lot of interesting information regarding the heritability of diseases and positive/negative traits. At the very end he includes his argument for the necessity of eugenics, which was interesting. I wish he would’ve gone deeper into this because this is worth discussing, since the Eugenics debate has been buried for so long. Overall, it’s definitely shown me that eugenics is humane, contrary to accusations of it being completely evil. Above all it’s a practical science used for the betterment of society, though this topic has been largely obscured. The slander is there for the sole reason that it claims the fact of positive/negative traits being largely inherited. This does not fit the (((narrative))) that certain people groups commit obscene amounts of violence solely due to “socio-economic factors”.

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Historically significant and therefore worth reading, especially for anyone interested in the history of eugenics.