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War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race

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This book is a fascinating account of the eugenics movement that flourished in the United States during the first third of the twentieth century. With the help of an international team of researchers the author details the movement's history: creation of the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island; the leadership of poultry researcher Charles Davenport; extensive Harriman, Rockefeller, and Carnegie funding; state laws legalizing compulsory sterilization; widespread acceptance by college presidents, clergymen, mental health workers, school principals, and leading progressive thinkers such as Theodore Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, and Woodrow Wilson; its validation by the United States Supreme Court in 1927 when it voted 8 to 1 to uphold the constitutionality of Virginia's eugenic sterilization law; and much, much more.

The book's most dramatic and controversial conclusion is that the American eugenics movement fueled the triumph of Nazism in Germany and thereby helped bring on the Holocaust. As Black writes in his Introduction, "the scientific rationales that drove killer doctors at Auschwitz were first concocted on Long Island at the Carnegie Institution's eugenic enterprise at Cold Spring Harbor." To his credit he provides a great deal of evidence to make his contention plausible, if not totally convincing.

The extremes to which the Nazis took their eugenics--euthansia killings of "unfit" Germans and the extermination of Jews, Gypsies, and others--gave eugenics a bad name from which it never recovered. This important book sheds much needed light on one of the darkest and most bizarre chapters of American history.

Charles Patterson, Ph.D., author of ETERNAL TREBLINKA: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust

You learn something new everyday, here in an important book: the history of the American eugenics movement and its influence on the perpetrators of the Nazi version leading to the Holocaust. Sanitized or amnesiac history has forgotten the details here, and they are grisly, the more so being American data of record, deep in the many archives the author and his team researched. The details include the involvement of many of the foundations, Carnegie, Rockerfeller, et. al. The eugenics era is routinely denounced, but the facts are diffused from discussion and this book is eminently worth reading carefully to see how it actually happened. The account has eye-popping details on every second page,viz. the actual episodes of tracking down hill billies for enforced sterilization. That's right, in the US of A.
The cheerleading of the Eugenics movement for the Nazis continued right up through the beginning of World War II in certain scientific journals. After that eugenics became genetics, and the author explores at the end the implications of all this as we enter the age of the genome under the banner of genetic fundamentalism.
I would get this book under your belt asap, and it is also an indirect contribution to the legacy of historical Mendelism/Darwinism/Social Darwinism as these generated the milieu for this phase of Americana Goes Haywire. It can happen here. So watch it.

...and have to say it was a GREAT READ! I'm going to keep this short, simple, and to the point; give this book a shot. I feel I've gained a very unique perspective of WWII and it's relationship to the US.

I was walking out of Barnes and Nobles only a week ago as my eyes grazed over the cover of the book on a shelf. Out of curiousity, I picked it up and was immediately engrossed by the first few pages. I venture to say any American would be, too. Edwin Black provides a clear, comprehensible history of not only eugenics, but the formation of modern genetics. You will uncover a largely untold piece of American history, as unbelievable and shocking as it may be. My friends wouldn't believe me when I shared the contents of this book with them; so I challenged them to read it. I finished it in under a week and am passing my copy along to them...I'm also taking the time to write this on Amazon...the book is that good.

_War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race_ (2003) by Edwin Black is a fascinating history of the rise and role of eugenics in American history and Nazi Germany. The book demonstrates some of the faulty fundamental premises behind the eugenics movement as well as showing some of the horrors that resulted from the implementation of the eugenics in both the United States and Nazi Germany. The book also shows the relationship between eugenicists and social Darwinists in the United States and Adolf Hitler who later adopted many of their ideas to implement in Germany. The book also shows how following World War II eugenics became discredited but was slowly morphed into the new field of genetics which achieved many positive scientific and medical results for humanity. However, with the new field of genetics came the baggage of eugenics and the possibility that eugenics could be implemented again. The book shows how the weak, poor, and "feeble-minded" were particularly targeted by the eugenics movement and many were sterilized in America or euthanized in Germany. The book also shows how ideas of racial supremacy entered into the thinking of eugenicists in their goal of creating a master Nordic race. Many of the individuals targeted by eugenicists had little wrong with them and thus the role of sterilization was completely unnecessary.

The book includes the following chapters-

Introduction - explains the role of eugenics in America and the need to give voice to those never born because of its implementation. Explains some of the misdeeds of eugencists in both America and Nazi Germany (including the role of the Holocaust) and notes the role of prominent organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegies, and Planned Parenthood in implementing eugenics.

Part One: From Pea Pod to Persecution.

Mountain Sweeps - acknowledges the role of poverty in the formulation of eugenics by America's wealthy elite. Explains how many of those particularly among the Brush Mountain "hill folk" of Virginia were targeted by American eugenicists because of their alleged inferiority and "feeble-mindedness". Explains the role of "human engineering" and the frightening possibility that the eugenic crimes of the twentieth century could be repeated.

Evolutions - examines how the Christian worldview which its emphasis on charity came to be overturned. Notes the problem of poverty both in the Middle Ages following the "Black Death" and in industrial England. Notes the role of "paupers" and the role of socially conscious reformers such as the author Charles Dickens who called attention to these matters. Examines the role of Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin in founding the scientific theory of evolution as well as the role of the Czech monk Gregor Mendel in his studies of pea pods which began the science of genetics. Focuses on the life of Francis Galton (a relative of Darwin in Britain) who began scientific and statistical investigations into these matters and who was to coin the term "eugenics". In particular, Galton developed the field of "positive eugenics" in his study of hereditary genius and wealthy families.

America's National Biology - explains how eugenics came to be implemented in the United States following studies of the feminist Victoria Woodhull, the racial theorist Lothrop Stoddard, the Carnegie Institution, and the eugenicist Charles Davenport in his goal of creating a superior "Nordic race". Notes the role of "the Jukes" a small family of "paupers" who served as propaganda for the eugenics movement.

Hunting the Unfit - explains how the "unfit" were singled out by the American Breeder's Association as being harmful to society. Notes the role of epileptics and the "feeble-minded" as being particularly singled out by eugenicists.

Legitimizing Raceology - notes the role of "raceology" as well as the role of IQ tests in legitimizing it. Notes some of the problems encountered by the early eugenicists.

The United States of Sterilization - explains how eugenicists sought to sterilize the "unfit" to prevent them from breeding. Notes the prominent role of eugenicists behind such efforts of sterilization which were implemented in the United States.

Birth Control - notes the role of Margaret Sanger founder of Planned Parenthood in promoting birth control for the poor. Explains how Sanger promoted both abortion and eugenics at the time. Also notes the role of individuals such as Lothrop Stoddard and others.

Blinded - explains the role of eugenicists behind the persecution of the blind who were singled out for their schemes.

Mongrelization - explains the role of the Census Bureau and the relationship between eugenicists who frequently believed in Anglo-Saxon supremacy and other races as well as fear of "mongrelization".

Eugenicide.

Origins - explains the role of eugenicists in implementing their sterilization techniques which focused particularly on outcaste groups. Examines the role of Charles Davenport behind the eugenics movement (funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Carnegie). Notes the importance of opposition to immigration (particularly that of Jews, Italians, and Poles) by eugenicists.

Britain's Crusade - notes the role of eugenics in Britain in its goal of sterilizing "paupers" and the other victims of the Industrial Revolution. Notes the role of Charles Davenport in collaborating with Francis Galton and others. Explains the role of Britain's "Poor Laws", illegal surgeries, the Ministry of Health, and other issues behind eugenics in Britain.

Eugenic Imperialism - notes the role of "global eugenics" and the hope of eugenicists to implement eugenics worldwide especially as it concerned the events of World War I. Notes the prominent role of conservationist Madison Grant behind the eugenics movement at this stage.

Eugenicide - explains how the idea of a "lethal chamber" arose in the thinking of various eugenicists at this time as a means to euthanize and exterminate the unfit. In particular, this notion was to play a role in the novels of Robert Chambers, and in the thinking of H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw. Explains how this notion was used to promote abortion and the euthanasia of deformed infants.

Rasse und Blut - explains how "negative eugenics" came to be implemented in Germany after Adolf Hitler discovered American eugenicists in his _Mein Kampf_. Notes the role of major American eugenicists such as Charles Davenport and Madison Grant in promoting eugenics and raceology in Germany.

Hitler's Eugenic Reich - explains how Hitler came to implement eugenics in Nazi Germany in his persecution of the mentally ill, "feeble-minded", and handicapped. Notes the role and support of American eugenicists including Lothrop Stoddard for these ideas. Explains the race laws in Nazi Germany as well as the role of American companies such as IBM behind eugenics and the death camps. Notes the importance of Catholic opposition to eugenics in Germany as expressed by the pope and also by Catholic thinkers such as G. K. Chesterton in Britain. Explains how Hitler altered eugenic ideas of Anglo-Saxon and "Nordic" supremacy to include Aryan and Teutonic supremacy.

Buchenwald - explains the role of Katzen-Ellenbogen, a psychoanalyst who promoted eugenics and aided German officers, at Buchenwald concentration camp. Explains how Katzen-Ellgenbogen came to counsel German officers who frequently suffered from neuroses caused by the mass killings they were forced to engage in.

Auschwitz - explains the role of Auschwitz concentration camp for implementing human destruction. Notes the prominent role of the eugenic lethal chamber. Shows the inhumane and sick experiments of such individuals as Dr. Josef Mengele on various individuals in the death camps. Notes the prominent role of Nazi science and some of the results that came out of grossly unethical Nazi experimentation. Notes in particular the results of experiments on human reaction to extreme cold and the Nazi doctors' obsession with twins for their experimentation.

Newgenics.

From Ashes to Aftermath - explains the end of the Nazi terror at the end of World War II. Notes how the Americans came to make use of Nazi experimentation following the Second World War (medical results obtained from experiments conducted on Nazi victims).

American Legacy - explains how the results of Nazi medical experimentation were brought to America under Project PAPERCLIP. Notes the prominent role of Nazi science for the American military as well as some of the results obtained through unethical experimentation for medical science. Explains the results of various lawsuits filed by the ACLU against the United States for sterilizing the "unfit". Notes the prohibition on marriages for the unfit in the United States as well as the advocacy of sterilization by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in his remark that "three generations of imbeciles is enough".

Eugenics Becomes Genetics - explains the discrediting of eugenics following the end of World War II but the continuing of some eugenics movements. Explains the role of the new science of genetics but notes its tarnished past in eugenics. Explains how genetics has offered many positive contributions to medical science and humanity but also is fraught with certain dangers. Notes the role of Francis Crick and Thomas Watson who helped discover DNA and their eugenic theories.

Newgenics - explains how in the twenty-first century issues raised by eugenics promise to become prominent again. Notes the role of animal cloning and the possibility of human cloning. Notes the role of DNA and genetic testing both for criminal science and the insurance industry (with the dangerous possibility of creating a "genetic underclass"). Notes important issues raised by bioethicists concerning the new industries of genetic engineering and the possibility of the dangers of eugenics becoming prominent again in a brave new world.

This book offers a detailed account of the rise and role of eugenics in America's sordid past. The issue raises many profound philosophical and ethical questions concerning the role of science and bioethics and ethical experimentation. The issue also shows the prominence of race science as well as the role of eugenics in promoting the Nazi state. I felt that while America readily condemns the Nazis it should be noted that many of the ideas implemented by Hitler had their origins in the United States and Britain. Ultimately what becomes of eugenics remains an open question that must be decided by humanity as it approaches a brave new world of genetic engineering.

In chronicaling the eugenics movement in America, Edwin Black fills a much needed void in the study of the history of eugenics and helps to rescue Eugenics from the abuses of Nazi Germany (which are dealt with in the book). I say "rescue" only meaning that he provides some much needed scholarship on the collusion of America institutions in the founding and propagation/propagandizing of the movement. The book, as you might expect, is full of revelations about the pioneers in America (such as the founder of Planned Parenthood, a woman who would later retreat from her position of birth-control as population control and go to see abortion as a proper alternative for women)and how they were only stopped from implimenting those methods the Nazis would employ less by their consciences, but by a little document called The United States Constitution. He deals with how the movement inspired men all the way up to the president, a man who was enthusiastic about "ridding society of its degenerate elements."

The book suffers, however, from one, taking an intentionalist view (that the Nazis wanted to annihilate the Jews from day one) of the Nazi atrocities (as opposed to a structuralist view which sees Nazis atrocities against the Jews as an evolution of their policies in general and WWII) and two, by concentrating too heavily on these atrocities. By placing the focus on the Nazi atrocities against the Jews, Black mildly subverts his own thesis which is that Eugenics was never meant to be a war on a certain group (jews)so much as it was a war on many "undesirables" (including the unemployed, the "feeble-minded", the blind, the mentally ill, women, the poor, blacks, and American immigrants, just to name a few).

That said, the book is still a good read for anyone interested in this subject and in its first section (dealing primarily with America) a fascinating read. (As an addition, check out the documentary Homo Sapiens 1900, directed by Peter Cohen, a film which deals with primarily the Eugenics movement in Europe but touches on the movement's roots in America. It additionally serves as a great, if Eurocentric, introduction to the Eugenics movement.)

It's hard to review a book like this: as the author states, each chapter could be a book itself; the volume of information is astounding. The basic thesis is simple: Black brings home the idea that America was a pioneer in the eugenics movement, influencing politics and society worldwide by the early 20th century. Although the most obvious disciple of America's eugenics program is Germany under the Nazis, Black documents how other countries, such as Sweden, Norway and England also took their cues from US policies to regulate marriage and birth of those considered desirable and undesirable.

There's simply too much information to fully review, but some of the major items include the fallacy of IQ testing; the campaign to prevent interracial marriage (some laws in the American South lasted into the 21st century); sterilization of those deemed 'feeble-minded' (a very subjective decision made by racists and others with an eugenical agenda); and a general re-ordering of society to create a 'master race'(most evident in Nazi Germany). The final chapter deals with 'Newgenics', and was perhaps the most potentially frightening, as it clarifies the challenges of dealing with genetic issues such as cloning, medical and life insurance based on an individual's genetic 'predisposition' to certain diseases based on family history, and the possible emergence of the designer children by the 'GenRich', those who can afford to create their own mini-master race kids.

As a side-note, I found it interesting that although Black devotes several chapters to Germany, there's no mention of the Paraguayan 'Nueva Germania' colony set up by Elizabeth Nietzsche in the 1880s. Like many of the characters Black mentions, Nietzsche and her group wanted to preserve the 'pure' Aryan race they felt was already corrupted in Germany by too many 'outsiders'. Their attempt to create their utopia in South America failed, just as Black's Davenport, Laughlin and others failed in the US. 'The War Against the Weak' is a great addition to modern social science; I learned a lot, and Black's book makes me want to learn more about this topic.

As a child in grade school in the mid-40s I wondered why our principal (and his preacher friend) were always ranting about 'bad blood' and 'sins of the father' - Edwin Black's book, War Against The Weak, sheds great light on their attitudes and demonstrates how famous, well-intentioned people get sucked into evil notions such as Eugenics and other 'absolutes'. Ideas, no matter how bright and glittery, can lead down
ugly paths and take that evil fork in the road which leads to holocast.
This book should be required reading for every freshman college class.

This book lays out a case, in plain language, that diseased ideas can propogate like wildfire, particularly when powerful people get behind them. Adolf Hitler did not just wake up one day and decide that Jews, homosexuals and the mentally disabled should be killed. That idea had been alive, spreading and in fact exported to Europe by US. This may explain why ships of Jewish refugees were turned back from entrance to this country during the war, eventhough everyone knew they would likely face death. This explains why so many Nazi scientists were welcomed into this country to continue biological research after the war.
But mostly what this well-researched work shows is the importance for standing up for all people and not assuming that any one of us has the right to determine who is fit or unfit to exist.

Mr. Black has done it again by exposing the complicity of America's "ruling elite" in establishing an intellectual, scientific foundation for sterilization and, ultimately, genocide of those deemed "inferior." War Against the Weak details how a cabal of well-known industrialists, scientists, technocrats, politicians, and dilettantes together contributed in the advancement of a pseudoscience from an idea into frightful practice. A must read for anyone concerned about the erosion of our civil liberties.

Edwin Black's War Against The Weak: Eugenics And America's Campaign To Create A Master Race is the story of eugenics and the American campaign to create a master race and is an exceptional history and offers insightful ethical considerations of the American eugenics movement. Chapters trace the roots of the movement to 1904, when a small group of scientists launched a new race-based concept, funded by American corporate institutes and foundations. Eugenics was even sanctioned by the Supreme Court and resulted in racist laws in over 27 states. This eye-opening social history belongs on the shelves of any college-level collection of American social issues and history.