The common narrative today is that evil Germans of the Third Reich were responsible for the 'science' of eugenics. However, the groundwork for this pseudo-science was laid in both Britain and the United States. What this idea believes is that according to these experts, intelligent and decent folks were that way purely because of genetics...not their environment. The then led to the notion that there were undesirables who needed to be prevented from breeding. In other words, 'better people' should be encouraged to reproduce and 'inferior people' should be legally stopped from breeding. Initially this meant sterilizations and stopping immigration from 'inferior places'. However, a bit later, the Germans took this to mean that these inferiors needed to be stopped using ANY means necessary...including murder.
This episode of "The American Experience" did a very good job of showing the eugenics movement's creation, evolution and impact on society in the US and abroad. In fact, it would make for a great documentary to show to students, as it really does a great job in explaining the movement and its demise.
This episode of "The American Experience" did a very good job of showing the eugenics movement's creation, evolution and impact on society in the US and abroad. In fact, it would make for a great documentary to show to students, as it really does a great job in explaining the movement and its demise.