Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics (Paperback)

Regular price $17.99

by Adam Rutherford

Description

A book about eugenics - what geneticist Adam Rutherford calls "a defining idea of the 20th century."
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Inspired by Darwin's ideas about evolution, eugenics arose in Victorian England as a theory for improving the British population, and quickly spread to America, where it was embraced by presidents, funded by Gilded Age monopolists, and enshrined into racist American laws that became the ideological cornerstone of the Third Reich. Despite this horrific legacy, eugenics looms large today as the advances in genetics in the last 30 years--from the sequencing of the human genome to modern gene editing techniques--have brought the idea of population purification back into the mainstream.

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Eugenics has "a short history, but a long past," Rutherford writes. The first half of Control is the history of an idea, from its roots in key philosophical texts of the classical world all the way into their genocidal enactment in the 20th century. The second part of the book explores how eugenics operates today, as part of our language and culture, as part of current political and racial discussions, and as an eternal temptation to powerful people who wish to improve society through reproductive control.

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With disarming wit and scientific precision, Rutherford explains why eugenics still figures prominently in the twenty-first century, despite its genocidal past. And he confronts insidious recurring questions--did eugenics work in Nazi Germany? And could it work today?--revealing the intellectual bankruptcy of the idea, and the scientific impossibility of its realization.

About the Author

Adam Rutherford is a geneticist, science writer, and broadcaster. He studied genetics at University College London, and during his PhD on the developing eye, he was part of a team that identified the first known genetic cause of a form of childhood blindness.

Product Details

Category: History

Language: English

Format/Binding: Paperback

Book Condition: New

ISBN-10: 132406613X

ISBN-13: 978-1324066132

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Date Published: November 21, 2023

Pages: 288

Terms of Sale

All book sales are final. No returns or exchanges.

Purchaser will receive a new book that has never been read.

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