| Unit name | Eugenics: The First Fifty Years (1883-1932) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HIST30108 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. John Lyons |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
News items about the augmentation/alteration of the human body through technology, medical procedures, and gene therapy abound in a twenty-first century culture in which the idea of ‘Posthumanity’ has now come to the fore. Interventions in human development are not new, of course, and in this unit students will encounter in detail a period in which such views were being put forward with great vigour, the first fifty years of the Eugenics ‘project’ (1883-1932). Significantly for historians, between then and now lies the mass implementation of Eugenic procedures by the Nazis, both before and during WWII. How then should we read, interpret, describe, and evaluate the early proponents of Eugenics as they developed and implemented their ideas during the first third of the twentieth century? From Francis Galton who coined the term and the pivotal pre-WWI years through to the three major International Congresses on Eugenics (1912, 1921, & 1932), this was a period in which their views of humanity and its future were being expressed with a forthrightness which often shocks today and yet which also finds its own echoes in the assumptions expressed within the contemporary discussions of the Posthuman. How might the historian evaluate the former and speak to the latter when the future of humanity and its diversity is on the line?
Aims: The unit aims to introduce students to the study of the early years of Eugenics (1883-1932) in historical perspective. Multiple primary sources and more recent secondary sources form the bedrock for each student’s critical reflection upon the interaction between the modern historian and a complex and troubling historical phenomenon in which human definition was placed at the centre of philosophical, scientific and social thought, often with horrifying results. Their own practices will form a significant element of the unit as we consider how our own lenses affect our take on the past.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
Classes will involve a combination of class discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.
1 x 3500-word Essay (50%) [ILOs 1-5]; 1 x Timed Assessment (50%) [ILOs 1-5]
Bashford, Alison, & Philippa Levine (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the History of Eugenics (OUP, 2010).
Black, Edwin, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race (Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003).
Hansen, Randall & Desmond S. King, Sterilized by the State: Eugenics, Race, and the Population Scare in Twentieth-Century North America (CUP, 2013).
Kevles, Daniel J., In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (Harvard University Press, 2001).
Rosen, Christine, Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement (OUP, 2004).
Saini, Angela, Superior: The Return of Race Science (Fourth Estate, 2019)
