The Politics of Heredity by Diane B Paul

The Politics of Heredity by Diane B Paul

The essays collected in The Politics of Heredity explore the political factors underlying shifts in thinking about the role of nature and nurture in shaping human behavior, and about the desirability and feasibility of controlling human reproduction. They ask why many assumptions that were simply taken for granted as late as the 1950s and '60s came to be considered fundamentally mistaken in the 1970s and '80s. They also suggest that some apparent shifts in thinking were not as deep as they may seem, and that changes in rhetoric may obscure the stability of core underlying beliefs.

"The essays are concise, intelligent, and well writtenA couple are already minor classics among historians of science. What is most remarkable about them is their challenging of conventional wisdom. Most people believe that eugenics was attached only to right-wing Nazi-like causes; Paul shows that there were important left-leaning threads in the movement. Most people believe that 'good science' overcame 'bad eugenics;' Paul shows that many eugenicists were up to snuff on their science, and that political events had far more to do with the eventual discrediting of the movement. I must say that when I first heard her present her paper on 'Did Eugenics Rest on an Elementary Mistake?' the experience was actually thrilling. In a single stroke, Paul demolished one of the most sacred cows of eugenics historiography—and brilliantly." — Robert N. Proctor, Pennsylvania State University

"I like the consistent focus on the relationship between science and politics, and the ties between historical and contemporary debates. Without reducing science to politics, the author shows, through historical examples, the importance of politics and ideology in the field of eugenics and genetics. This is especially interesting in light of the current debates over social constructivism in science studies, and the increased market involvement in science." — Dorothy Nelkin, New York University

Diane B. Paul is Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts at Boston.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780791438220
ISBN 10	0791438228
Title	The Politics of Heredity
Author	Diane B Paul
Series	Suny Series In Philosophy And Biology
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	State University of New York Press
Year published	1998-07-23
Number of pages	232
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.