Title American eugenics : race, queer anatomy, and the science of nationalism / Nancy Ordover

Published Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, ©2003

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Description 1 online resource (xxviii, 297 pages) Contents National hygiene: twentieth-century immigration and the eugenics lobby -- Queer anatomy: one hundred years of diagnosis, dissection, and political strategy -- Sterilization and beyond: the liberal appeal of the technofix Summary Annotation Traces the history of eugenics ideology in the United States and its ongoing presence in contemporary life. The Nazis may have given eugenics its negative connotations, but the practice--and the "science" that supports it--is still disturbingly alive in America in anti-immigration initiatives, the quest for a "gay gene, " and theories of collective intelligence. Tracing the historical roots and persistence of eugenics in the United States, Nancy Ordover explores the political and cultural climate that has endowed these campaigns with mass appeal and scientific legitimacy. American Eugenics demonstrates how biological theories of race, gender, and sexuality are crucially linked through a concern with regulating the "unfit." These links emerge in Ordover's examination of three separate but ultimately related American eugenics campaigns: early twentieth-century anti-immigration crusades; medical models and interventions imposed on (and sometimes embraced by) lesbians, gays, transgendered people, andbisexuals;, and the compulsory sterilization of poor women and women of color. Throughout, her work reveals how constructed notions of race, gender, sexuality, and nation are put to ideological uses and how "faith in science" can undermine progressive social movements, drawing liberals and conservatives alike into eugenics-based discourse and policies Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Eugenics -- United States -- History -- 20th century Ethnic groups. Prejudices. Homosexuality. Involuntary sterilization. Eugenics -- history Ethnicity History, 20th Century Prejudice Emigration and Immigration Homosexuality Sterilization, Involuntary ethnic groups. homosexuality. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General. Prejudices Involuntary sterilization Homosexuality Ethnic groups Eugenics Eugénisme. Genre. Sexualité Nationalisme. Aspect politique. 20e siècle. United States United States États-Unis. Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780816691487 0816691487 9781299911550 1299911552

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