The unfit : a history of a bad idea / Elof Axel Carlson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carlson, Elof Axel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Eugenics--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (468 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, c2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The bad idea is that some people are simply unfit to live and reproduce. Carlson (biochemistry and cell biology, Stony Brook U.) explores degeneracy theory and its relation to eugenics in sections covering from biblical times to Darwin; the rise of eugenics; and racism, the Holocaust, and beyond. c. Book News Inc.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Preface

Chronology of the Biological Concept of Unfit People

Introduction

Part I: Before Darwin

1 Who Are the Unfit?

2 The Unfit in Biblical Times

3 Self- Pollution and Declining Health

4 Degeneracy Theory: Identifying the Innately Depraved and the Victims of Vicious Upbringing

5 Dangerous Classes and Social Degeneracy

6 Poor Laws and the Descent to Degeneracy

7 The Perfectibility of Man Confronts Vice and Misery

8 Evolutionary Ethics before Darwin

9 Hereditary Units and the Pessimism of the Germ Plasm

Part II: Eugenics Takes the Spotlight

10 The Jukes and the Tribe of Ishmael

11 A Minor Prophet of Democracy

12 Isolating the Unfit through Compulsory Sterilization

13 The Emergence of Two Wings of the Eugenics Movement

14 Europe's Undesirables Replace the Domestic Unfit

15 Eugenics Becomes an International Movement

Part III: Racism, the Holocaust, and Beyond

16 Racism and Human Inequality

17 Jews as People, Race, Culture, Religion, and Victims

18 The Smoke of Auschwitz

19 The Abandonment of Eugenics by Genetics

20 The Future of Eugenics

21 Dealing with Life's Imperfections

Appendices

Appendix 1: Flow Diagrams and the History of Ideas

Appendix 2: Useful Books on the History of Eugenics

Appendix 3: Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 409-426) and index.

ISBN:

0-87969-658-3