The Sterilization Movement And Global Fertility In The Twentieth Century

Author : Ian R. Dowbiggin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2008-04-11
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780190293338

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The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century by Ian R. Dowbiggin Pdf

Many would be surprised to learn that the preferred method of birth control in the United States today is actually surgical sterilization. This book takes an historical look at the sterilization movement in post-World War II America, a revolution in modern contraceptive behavior. Focusing on leaders of the sterilization movement from the 1930's through the turn of the century, this book explores the historic linkages between environment, civil liberties, eugenics, population control, sex education, marriage counseling, and birth control movements in the 20th-century United States. Sterilization has been variously advocated as a medical procedure for defusing the "population bomb," expanding individual rights, liberating women from the fear of pregnancy, strengthening marriage, improving the quality of life of the mentally disabled, or reducing the incidence of hereditary disorders. From an historical standpoint, support for free and unfettered access to sterilization services has aroused opposition in some circles, and was considered a "liberal cause" in post-World War II America. This story demonstrates how a small group of reformers helped to alter traditional notions of gender and sexuality.

Author : Ian Robert Dowbiggin
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2023
Category : Sterilization (Birth control)
ISBN : 0197708994

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The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century by Ian Robert Dowbiggin Pdf

This work takes an historical look at the sterilization movement in post-World War II America. Focusing on leaders of the sterilization movement from the 1930's on, it explores the linkages between environment, civil liberties, eugenics, population control, sex education, marriage counselling, and birth control movements.

Author : Richard A. Soloway
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 472 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2014-02-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781469611198

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Demography and Degeneration by Richard A. Soloway Pdf

Richard Soloway offers a compelling and authoritative study of the relationship of the eugenics movement to the dramatic decline in the birthrate and family size in twentieth-century Britain. Working in a tradition of hereditarian determinism which held fast to the premise that "like tends to beget like," eugenicists developed and promoted a theory of biosocial engineering through selective reproduction. Soloway shows that the appeal of eugenics to the middle and upper classes of British society was closely linked to recurring concerns about the relentless drop in fertility and the rapid spread of birth control practices from the 1870s to World War II. Demography and Degeneration considers how differing scientific and pseudoscientific theories of biological inheritance became popularized and enmeshed in the prolonged, often contentious national debate about "race suicide" and "the dwindling family." Demographic statistics demonstrated that birthrates were declining among the better-educated, most successful classes while they remained high for the poorest, least-educated portion of the population. For many people steeped in the ideas of social Darwinism, eugenicist theories made this decline all the more alarming: they feared that falling birthrates among the "better" classes signfied a racial decline and degeneration that might prevent Britain from successfully negotiating the myriad competive challenges facing the nation in the twentieth century. Although the organized eugenics movement remained small and elitist throughout most of its history, this study demonstrates how pervasive eugenic assumptions were in the middle and upper reaches of British society, at least until World War II. It also traces the important role of eugenics in the emergence of the modern family planning movement and the formulation of population policies in the interwar years.

Author : Ian Robert Dowbiggin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : History
ISBN : 9780195188585

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The Sterilization Movement and Global Fertility in the Twentieth Century by Ian Robert Dowbiggin Pdf

The author ends by shedding light on the practical and ethical difficulties of distinguishing coercion from choice in reproductive-health policy. What does informed consent in birth control really mean on the ground? Whose needs are actually served in attempts to reduce fertility rates? According to Dowbiggin, the twentieth-century birth control movement never entirely shed its eugenic origins."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : ReadHowYouWant.com
Page : 378 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2024-06-28
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9781458731340

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Choice & Coercion (Volume 1 of 2) (EasyRead Comfort Edition) by Anonim Pdf

Author : Barbara Klich-Kluczewska,Joachim von Puttkamer,Immo Rebitschek
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2022-10-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000774177

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Biopolitics in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century by Barbara Klich-Kluczewska,Joachim von Puttkamer,Immo Rebitschek Pdf

The field of biopolitics encompasses issues from health and hygiene, birth rates, fertility and sexuality, life expectancy and demography to eugenics and racial regimes. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive view on these issues for Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. The cataclysms of imperial collapse, World War(s) and the Holocaust but also the rise of state socialism after 1945 provided extraordinary and distinct conditions for the governing of life and death. The volume collects the latest research and empirical studies from the region to showcase the diversity of biopolitical regimes in their regional and global context – from hunger relief for Hungarian children after the First World War to abortion legislation in communist Poland. It underlines the similarities as well, demonstrating how biopolitical strategies in this area often revolved around the notion of an endangered nation; and how ideological schemes and post-imperial experiences in Eastern Europe further complicate a 'western' understanding of democratic participatory and authoritarian repressive biopolitics. The new geographical focus invites scholars and students of social and human sciences to reconsider established perspectives on the history of population management and the history of Europe.

Author : The Population Knowledge Network
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2015-09-16
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317479635

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Twentieth Century Population Thinking by The Population Knowledge Network Pdf

This reader on the history of demography and historical perspectives on "population" in the twentieth century features a unique collection of primary sources from around the globe, written by scholars, politicians, journalists, and activists. Many of the sources are available in English for the first time. Background information is provided on each source. Together, the sources mirror the circumstances under which scientific knowledge about "population" was produced, how demography evolved as a discipline, and how demographic developments were interpreted and discussed in different political and cultural settings. Readers thereby gain insight into the historical precedents on debates on race, migration, reproduction, natural resources, development and urbanization, the role of statistics in the making of the nation state, and family structures and gender roles, among others. The reader is designed for undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars in the fields of demography and population studies as well as to anyone interested in the history of science and knowledge.

Author : Philippa Levine
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 167 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Eugenics
ISBN : 9780199385904

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Eugenics by Philippa Levine Pdf

A concise and gripping account of eugenics from its origins in the twentieth century and beyond.

Author : Adam Seth Cohen
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 418 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : History
ISBN : 9781594204180

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Imbeciles by Adam Seth Cohen Pdf

One of America's great miscarriages of justice, the Supreme Court's infamous 1927 Buck v. Bell ruling made government sterilization of "undesirable" citizens the law of the land New York Times bestselling author Adam Cohen tells the story in Imbeciles of one of the darkest moments in the American legal tradition: the Supreme Court's decision to champion eugenic sterilization for the greater good of the country. In 1927, when the nation was caught up in eugenic fervor, the justices allowed Virginia to sterilize Carrie Buck, a perfectly normal young woman, for being an "imbecile." It is a story with many villains, from the superintendent of the Dickensian Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded who chose Carrie for sterilization to the former Missouri agriculture professor and Nazi sympathizer who was the nation's leading advocate for eugenic sterilization. But the most troubling actors of all were the eight Supreme Court justices who were in the majority - including William Howard Taft, the former president; Louis Brandeis, the legendary progressive; and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., America's most esteemed justice, who wrote the decision urging the nation to embark on a program of mass eugenic sterilization. Exposing this tremendous injustice--which led to the sterilization of 70,000 Americans--Imbeciles overturns cherished myths and reappraises heroic figures in its relentless pursuit of the truth. With the precision of a legal brief and the passion of a front-page exposé, Cohen's Imbeciles is an unquestionable triumph of American legal and social history, an ardent accusation against these acclaimed men and our own optimistic faith in progress.

Author : Randall Hansen,Desmond King
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 313 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2013-08-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107032927

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Sterilized by the State by Randall Hansen,Desmond King Pdf

This book shows how eugenic sterilization policies were maintained after the 1940s in the United States and Canada despite the discrediting of such theories by comparable Nazi Germany policies. It focuses on the individual experience of victims of sterilization, the doctors concerned, and the mental health institutions that protected the system.

Author : Matthew Connelly
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 538 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2010-03-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674262768

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Fatal Misconception by Matthew Connelly Pdf

Fatal Misconception is the disturbing story of our quest to remake humanity by policing national borders and breeding better people. As the population of the world doubled once, and then again, well-meaning people concluded that only population control could preserve the “quality of life.” This movement eventually spanned the globe and carried out a series of astonishing experiments, from banning Asian immigration to paying poor people to be sterilized. Supported by affluent countries, foundations, and non-governmental organizations, the population control movement experimented with ways to limit population growth. But it had to contend with the Catholic Church’s ban on contraception and nationalist leaders who warned of “race suicide.” The ensuing struggle caused untold suffering for those caught in the middle—particularly women and children. It culminated in the horrors of sterilization camps in India and the one-child policy in China. Matthew Connelly offers the first global history of a movement that changed how people regard their children and ultimately the face of humankind. It was the most ambitious social engineering project of the twentieth century, one that continues to alarm the global community. Though promoted as a way to lift people out of poverty—perhaps even to save the earth—family planning became a means to plan other people‘s families. With its transnational scope and exhaustive research into such archives as Planned Parenthood and the newly opened Vatican Secret Archives, Connelly’s withering critique uncovers the cost inflicted by a humanitarian movement gone terribly awry and urges renewed commitment to the reproductive rights of all people.

Author : Heinrich Hartmann,Corinna R. Unger
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2014-09-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781782384281

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A World of Populations by Heinrich Hartmann,Corinna R. Unger Pdf

Demographic study and the idea of a “population” was developed and modified over the course of the twentieth century, mirroring the political, social, and cultural situations and aspirations of different societies. This growing field adapted itself to specific policy concerns and was therefore never apolitical, despite the protestations of practitioners that demography was “natural.” Demographics were transformed into public policies that shaped family planning, population growth, medical practice, and environmental conservation. While covering a variety of regions and time periods, the essays in this book share an interest in the transnational dynamics of emerging demographic discourses and practices. Together, they present a global picture of the history of demographic knowledge.

Author : Molly Ladd-Taylor
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2017-12-01
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9781421423739

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Fixing the Poor by Molly Ladd-Taylor Pdf

How state welfare politics—not just concerns with "race improvement"—led to eugenic sterilization practices. Honorable Mention, 2018 Outstanding Book Award, The Disability History AssociationShortlist, 2019 Wallace K. Ferguson Prize, Canadian Historical Association Between 1907 and 1937, thirty-two states legalized the sterilization of more than 63,000 Americans. In Fixing the Poor, Molly Ladd-Taylor tells the story of these state-run eugenic sterilization programs. She focuses on one such program in Minnesota, where surgical sterilization was legally voluntary and administered within a progressive child welfare system. Tracing Minnesota's eugenics program from its conceptual origins in the 1880s to its official end in the 1970s, Ladd-Taylor argues that state sterilization policies reflected a wider variety of worldviews and political agendas than previously understood. She describes how, after 1920, people endorsed sterilization and its alternative, institutionalization, as the best way to aid dependent children without helping the "undeserving" poor. She also sheds new light on how the policy gained acceptance and why coerced sterilizations persisted long after eugenics lost its prestige. In Ladd-Taylor's provocative study, eugenic sterilization appears less like a deliberate effort to improve the gene pool than a complicated but sadly familiar tale of troubled families, fiscal and administrative politics, and deep-felt cultural attitudes about disability, dependency, sexuality, and gender. Drawing on institutional and medical records, court cases, newspapers, and professional journals, Ladd-Taylor reconstructs the tragic stories of the welfare-dependent, sexually delinquent, and disabled people who were labeled "feebleminded" and targeted for sterilization. She chronicles the routine operation of Minnesota's three-step policy of eugenic commitment, institutionalization, and sterilization in the 1920s and 1930s and shows how surgery became the "price of freedom" from a state institution. Combining innovative political analysis with a compelling social history of those caught up in Minnesota's welfare system, Fixing the Poor is a powerful reinterpretation of eugenic sterilization.

Author : Paul R. Ehrlich
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 1971
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1568495870

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The Population Bomb by Paul R. Ehrlich Pdf

Author : Ian Dowbiggin
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Page : 262 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2014-02-14
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780700619474

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The Search for Domestic Bliss by Ian Dowbiggin Pdf

Why are Americans so bad at marriage? It's certainly not for lack of trying. By the early 21st century Americans were spending billions on marriage and family counseling, seeking advice and guidance from some 50,000 experts. And yet, the divorce rate suggests that all of this therapeutic intervention isn't making couples happier or marriages more durable. Quite the contrary, Ian Dowbiggin tells us in this thought-provoking book: the "caring industry" is part of the problem. Under the influence of therapeutic reformers, marital and familial dynamics in this country have shifted from mores and commitment to love and companionship. This movement toward a "me marriage," as the New York Times has termed it, with its attendant soaring expectations and acute dissatisfactions, is rooted as much in the twists and turns of 20th-century history as it is in the realities in the hearts and minds of modern Americans, Dowbiggin argues; and his book reveals how effectively those changes have been encouraged and orchestrated by a small but resourceful group of social reformers with ties to eugenics, birth control, population control, and sex education. In The Search for Domestic Bliss, Dowbiggin delves into the stories of the usual suspects in the founding of the therapeutic gospel, exposing little known aspects of their influence and misunderstood features of their work. Here we learn, for instance, that Betty Friedan did not after all discover "the problem that knows no name"--the widespread unhappiness of women in mid-century America; and that, like Friedan, one of the pioneers of marriage counseling was an open admirer of Stalin's Russia. The book also explores the long overlooked impact of sex researchers Alfred Kinsey and Masters and Johnson on the development of marriage and family counseling; and considers the under-appreciated contributions to the marriage counseling movement of social reformer and activist Emily Mudd. Through these and other reform-minded Americans, Dowbiggin traces the concerted and deliberate way in which the old order of looking to family and community for guidance gave way to seeking guidance from marriage and family counseling professionals. Such a transformation, as this book makes clear, has been a key part of a major revolution in the way Americans think about their inner selves and their relations with friends, family, and community members--a revolution in which once deeply private concerns have been redefined as grave matters of public mental health.