Eugenics: A Comparison Between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany
Write a paper based on the statement and assignment description provided：
Statement: Through a comparative analysis of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, this paper will delve into the nuances that contributed to eugenics' appeal in the early 20th century. It explores the keen interest shown by scientists, politicians, intellectuals and cultural leaders in these countries. The appeal of eugenics is shaped by a complex interplay of factors, including prevailing social beliefs, economic conditions, political ideologies, and nationalist sentiments. By studying the context of each of the countries mentioned above, eugenics and the links between eugenics reform and specific political programs and social movements will be understood and analyzed. In addition, the analysis will explore the interrelationships between eugenics and themes such as racism, social reform, the women's rights movement and national health policy. Through this thesis, the focus will be on understanding the impact and significance of eugenics on the development of society at that time, while critically reflecting on its impact and limitations.
Required text: Diane Paul, Controlling Human Heredity
Assignment Description: Many scientists, politicians, intellectuals and cultural leaders in America and other countries including Great Britain and Germany saw much to praise about the field of eugenics. Using the readings Diane Paul, Controlling Human Heredity as resources, write an essay that examines and evaluates how and why the field was appealing. Comparing at least two countries discussed in the readings, examine what difference national contexts make to how individuals approached eugenics. How did eugenics reforms connect to specific political programs and social movements?
As you write this essay make sure that your approach does not depend on scientific knowledge or other facts that the people of the early twentieth century could not have known. This is to say your discussion should center on facts, values, and beliefs that these people had or could be expected to have at the time. Your essay should be anchored by a thesis/argument, not summary. Make sure that the elements of summary you do include are used in the service of explicating or illustrating your arguments. Use longer quotations when you need to draw the reader’s attention to the specific language that your author used. When you do so, make sure not only to quote, but to explain why and how the specific language you quoted matters. In many cases it will be better to paraphrase than to quote as the goal of this paper is to make your own analysis.
Submission Instructions: Please note that your paper should be between five and seven pages, and should be submitted on a Microsoft Word or pdf document. Please format the paper using the Chicago Manual of Style.
EUGENICS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM, THE UNITED STATES, AND GERMANY
Student’s Name
Course
Date
Eugenics: A Comparison between the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany
Introduction
While there are contradicting narratives regarding the origin of eugenics, Germany was the one country that went to the most extreme length to implement it. In 1938, Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, argued as follows.
“Our starting point is not the individual, and we do not subscribe to the view that one should feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or clothe the naked…Our objectives are entirely different…we must have a healthy people in order to prevail in the world” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2020).
The appeal of eugenics peaked in the early 20th century as politicians, scientists, cultural leaders, and intellectuals in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany contemplated creating a superior race. While each country had different social beliefs, political ideologies, nationalist sentiments, and economic conditions, the basic idea was that eugenics could resolve each country's social and economic challenges at the time. Eugenics became the foundation for racism, social reform, and national health policy, triggering such responses as women's rights movements.
A Comparison between the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany
The three countries implemented eugenics to different extents. For example, Germany’s Nazi regime was built around the need to purify the genetic makeup of the country’s population to eliminate people regarded as threatening the nation’s health. In the United Kingdom (henceforth, the UK), the primary motive was to use eugenics as a form of social control in the face of social and economic turmoil in the 1930s (Searle 1979). In the United States, the ideas of eugenics began with animal studies and went on to humans as scientists sought to reduce negative human traits. Therefore, the main observation in this comparison is that the development of eugenics took different paths and occurred at different times across the three countries as each pursued a different objective.
A good starting point in this comparison is the United Kingdom since it is where the earliest definition of eugenics can be found. Francis Galton was the first scientist to define the term eugenics. He started his arguments in 1865 by expressing that people should be responsible for their evolution. In 1883, he coined the term "eugenics" from the Greek word "eugenes", which meant 'good in birth.' In the early 1900s, Galton experimented with the application of eugenics in social control to improve the racial qualities of future generations (Paul 1995). This action explains why the focus of eugenics in the UK revolved around social control as the country struggled with social and economic movements. In this case, the eugenics propagandists proposed that the social and fiscal policy of the UK would be redesigned to improve racial qualities. The economic depression that triggered the social and economic turmoil was often the reference point for the propagandists, who were majorly recruited by the various eugenics societies to support the idea (Searle 1979). In this case, it becomes apparent that the UK elite did not want to be responsible for bailing out lower classes from economic problems or sharing in their social problems.
Despite the formation of eugenics societies to push the idea to the public and policymakers, the UK did not go far in achieving the desired objectives. This action can be explained by the fact that eugenics received little attention from scholars (Mackenzie 1976). However, the main determinant of the rise and fall of eugenics ideologies in the UK is the social fragmentation of British society. In other words, British society was fundamentally divided between capitalists and residual autocrats (comprised of the ruling class) on the one hand and the manual working class on the other. In the late 19th century, an intermediary class also arose, which comprised professional occupations. At the same time, the UK society also had other established professions, including the church, medicine, and law. These professions were largely regarded as the professional middle class, and further inter-class divisions were visible. Due to these divisions, it is difficult to achieve ideological unity, hence the failure of the eugenics ideologies to take root in the country.
Similar to the UK, eugenics in the United States also faded quickly. Unlike the United UK, eugenics has perpetuated social ills such as racism, arguably becoming a new tool to subjugate African Americans after slavery ended in 1865. Coincidentally, 1865 was also when Galton introduced eugenics in the UK. The eugenics movement in the United States began in the 1900s, pioneered by scholars like Charles Davenport. As a biologist whose early studies focused on heredity in animals before shifting to humans, Davenport is regarded as the leader of the eugenics movement in the United States (Carlow 2019). Davenport formed the Eugenics Records Board (ERB), which focused on inheriting undesirable traits. He was funded most notably by John Harvey Kellogg, another eugenicist who believed racial mixing and mental defects are detrimental to the human race. In this case, eugenicists...