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Buy Controlling Human Heredity: 1865 To the Present (Control of Nature) by Diane B. Paul available and for sale on Brightsurf
| View Larger Image | Controlling Human Heredity: 1865 To the Present (Control of Nature)
by Diane B. Paul
| | List Price: | $21.00 | | Price: | $16.38 | | You Save: | $4.62 (22%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 715748 | | Studio: | Humanity Books | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 158 | | Publication Date: | December 31, 1969 | | Publisher: | Humanity Books |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Book Description
In the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, it was widely assumed that society ought to foster the breeding of those who possessed favorable traits and discourage the breeding of those who did not. Controlled human breeding, "eugenics" as it was labeled by Francis Galton, seemed only good common sense. How did eugenics come to exert such powerful and broad appeal? What events shaped its direction? Whose interests did it finally serve? Why did it fall into disrepute? Has it survived in other guises? These are some of the questions that Diane Paul sets out to answer - questions that have acquired a new urgency in light of developments in genetic medicine. The eugenics movement appeared to be dead - associated with race and class prejudice, in particular the crimes of the Third Reich - or was it just sleeping? Has eugenics returned in the guise of medical genetics? In the last decade, historians have come to understand that support for eugenics was diverse and tenacious, with most geneticists remaining enthusiasts through at least the 1930s. This new historiography emphasizes eugenics' broad and persistent appeal and its close association with genetics. In CONTROLLING HUMAN HEREDITY, Professor Paul aims to bridge the gap between expert and lay understandings of the history of eugenics and thereby enrich the debate on the perplexing contemporary choices in genetics medicine. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 2 reviews)
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Great Introductory Survey of the History of Eugenics 
Diane Paul has produced a readable and brief introduction to the history of eugenic thought. After an excellent overview chapter, Paul proceeds chronologically from Francis Galton and social Darwinism through twentieth century campaigns for sterilization and immigration restriction in the name of eugenic reform. Paul convincingly argues that eugenics has been used by proponents of a variety of causes and political persuasions, left and right. With announcements every week of the discovery of the gene for some ailment, Paul's book is both timely and important. As the debates over cloning, genetic screening, or gene therapy continue, this book will provide a much needed historical context that can only help as we reflect on today's eugenics.
December 30, 1997 | |
20 pages of information in a 120 page book. 
It is interesting (strange actually) that theauthor chose to present an inherently historicaltopic in a non-chronological format. The book is instead organized as a series of (IMHO arbitrary) topics, and the subject is analyzed in turn from the perspective of each. In fact, there is a great deal of redundency from "topic" to "topic", so much so in fact that reading any 20 pages of the book are as good as reading the whole. Still, those 20 pages would constitute a good introduction to the subject.
July 24, 1997 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
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