The History of Eugenics in Global Perspective

Presents the very first global treatment of eugenics, pursuing a thematic approach in individual countries.

For a long time, eugenics was closely identified by historians with the mass murder of people who were disabled and of people who were considered part of the “Jewish race” in Nazi Germany. The last three decades have finally seen a growing number of publications that have explored the thriving eugenics movement in the United States and more recently also in Canada. Research about eugenics in the United States, Canada, and Germany has, however, been conducted in isolation from each other. Few scholars such as Stefan Kuehl and Egbert Klautke have looked at the intersections of eugenic research, organization, and practice between the eugenics movements in these three countries.
What is missing is a global history of eugenics, which explores eugenics as a phenomenon that transcended nearly all religions, political orientations, and ideologies. Eugenics emerged at the end of the nineteenth century first in the United Kingdom and spread from here first to the United States and later to continental Europe. It deeply influenced thinking, concepts of health care, and state policies in many countries. Modern-day specialization and fragmentation of the historical profession have proven as ill-equipped to capture a global phenomenon such as eugenics and instead produced national or even regional studies of eugenics in which authors highlight the perceived national and regional specifics of eugenics in a particular setting.

This book presents the very first global treatment of eugenics. It does not claim that eugenics was the same in countries such as the United States, Germany or China, but that developments in each country emerged from intensive contacts between eugenicists in these countries with each other. These eugenicists spoke the same language, followed similar trajectories, and shared a common vision.
This book, furthermore, provides the very first comprehensive history of eugenics by providing chapters on confinement, sterilization, marriage restrictions, and euthanasia. This book is the very first book to provide a comprehensive history of eugenic marriage restrictions. It is also the very first book on the topic of eugenics that includes the topic of euthanasia.