Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South
BeforeSummer for the Gods, his Pulitzer-winning history of the Scopes trial, Edward J. Larson wrote this incisive history of eugenics--the study of hereditary improvement of the human race through selective breeding--in the American South of the early 20th century.Although Southerners were hardly the only people preoccupied with sex and race, their response to eugenic theories was recongizably distinctive in its enthusiasm. Larson provides a detailed analysis of the various state laws and public policies--and the forces behind their implementation. As he demonstrates, Southern eugenics was not merely a matter of preventing the "white race" from being "tainted" by African-American blood; great concern also existed regarding the widespread reproduction of the "unfit" (physically and mentally disabled), with sterilization frequently proposed as a solution. With his concise prose style, Larson makes this broad topic, which has continued relevance as our medical and genetic technologies become more and more refined, accessible to the general reader.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.