Allan Chase

Allan Chase (1913-1993) was an American writer and independent scholar. He was born in New York City in 1913.
In 1943 Chase published Falange: The Axis Secret Army in the Americas. The book was reviewed briefly for Foreign Affairs by Robert Gale Woolbert, describing it as documenting an "investigation into the pro-Axis activities of the Spanish Falange organization in Latin America and the Philippine Islands." Chase followed this with two novels, The Five Arrows (1944) and Shadow of a Hero (1949). 
On July 12, 1953, Allan Chase testified before a private session of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, of the Committee on Government Operations, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy presiding. Chase was questioned on his service to the American Committee on Spanish Freedom and his brief membership in the Communist Party. The record of his testimony concludes with the committee agreeing to keep the testimony private, out of consideration for Chase's public reputation as an author.
Chase later worked in television. He wrote one episode of 77 Sunset Strip (1960), writing as Allen Chasen. His credits also include an episode of This Is The Life (1961) and an episode of The Defenders (1964). Chase was co-creator and writer for three episodes of Days of Our Lives. (1965).
Later in his career, Chase turned to non-fiction with a three book series on "social biology". In 1971 Chase published The Biological Imperatives: Health Politics and Human Survival. The second book, The Legacy of Malthus: The Social Costs of the New Scientific Racism, was published in 1977. The third, Magic Shots: A Human and Scientific Account of the Long and Continuing Struggle to Eradicated Infectious Diseases by Vaccination was published in 1982.
The Legacy of Malthus documents "the function of scientific racism in American Life". Chase describes his book as "the first comprehensive account of scientific racism---it's origins in the Industrial Revolution, its theorists, its propagandists, and its destructive effects on past and present American life." He introduces the book with Thomas Malthus, the 19th century British scholar whose simple and commonly questioned assertions about population growth and food supply inspired scholars throughout the 19th century, including those responsible for the discredited theories of Social Darwinism and Eugenics. In Part Two, "From Malthus to Hitler: The Rise, Conquest, and Twilight of the Old Scientific Racism," Chase describes how racist pseudoscience took hold throughout the 19th and into the 20th century, with the misuse of IQ testing and the influence of American eugenicists on programs of sterilization in Nazi Germany. In part three of the book "The Phoenix, The Rise of the New Scientific Racism," Chase explains how scientific racism didn't end with World War II, carried into the late 20th century through scholars like Arthur R. Jensen and William Shockley. Part four, "The Legitimate Sciences' Answer to the Old and New Scientific Racism---Once and for All?" documents competent science that debunks principal theories of racist pseudoscience. George M. Fredrickson, who reviewed the book for The New York Times, wrote "this book should he read and read widely because of the way it thoroughly discredits the pernicious idea that most social problems are biological In origin." The Legacy of Malthus received the Cleveland Foundation's Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction in 1978. The award recognizes "important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity".
In 1983 Chase published The Truth about STD: The Old Ones-herpes and Other New Ones-The Primary Causes-the Available Cures.
The University of Illinois has maintained an archive of manuscripts and materials from Chase's work.
Category:1913 births
Category:People from New York City
Category:American people
Category:Independent scholars
Category:American writers
Category:1993 deaths