User Reviews

An excellent non-fiction movie about the history of eugenics and state laws allowing forced sterilization. Hitler adopted these laws from the United States. #racism #biology #poverty #immigration #history.

The common narrative today is that evil Germans of the Third Reich were responsible for the 'science' of eugenics. However, the groundwork for this pseudo-science was laid in both Britain and the United States. What this idea believes is that according to these experts, intelligent and decent folks were that way purely because of genetics...not their environment. The then led to the notion that there were undesirables who needed to be prevented from breeding. In other words, 'better people' should be encouraged to reproduce and 'inferior people' should be legally stopped from breeding. Initially this meant sterilizations and stopping immigration from 'inferior places'. However, a bit later, the Germans took this to mean that these inferiors needed to be stopped using ANY means necessary...including murder.

This episode of "The American Experience" did a very good job of showing the eugenics movement's creation, evolution and impact on society in the US and abroad. In fact, it would make for a great documentary to show to students, as it really does a great job in explaining the movement and its demise.

A well-balanced 2018 documentary, narrated by Corey Stoll, takes us chronologically through the theory and practice of eugenics. Naturally, we get upfront we get our Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel, whom one remembers from science classes. Sound like sci-fi names, looking for the Mendelian ratio.

We soon find out that heredity in the fly is far more complex than in Mendel's pea. Genes live in chromosomes and travel in packs.

We are witnessing the beginning of GMOs.

We get an introduction to the Panama-Pacific Expo. Too bad I missed that one, it even had a Hines 57 tower. We get introduced to John Harvey Kellogg; you will never look at corn flakes in the same way.

Even though the title of this document is about eugenics, most of the time it focuses on the life of Charles Benedict Davenport. However, a title like "American Experience: Charles Benedict Davenport" would not sell as well. Eventually, we move on to others such as 1927 Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Further reading "The Kallikak Family" by Henry Herbert Goddard ISBN-13: 978-1440434501 "Brightness and Dullness in Children" by Herbert Hollingworth Woodrow ISBN-13: 978-1358041075 "The Passing of the Great Race" by Madison Grant ISBN-13: 978-1684221486 (read on the floor of Congress) The movie "Tomorrow's Children" (1934) Starring: Diane Sinclair, Donald Douglas, John Preston, et al.

Movie "GATTACA" (1997) Starring: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Alan Arkin, and Jude Law

With a few exceptions, there is some history for us all, and well presented with pictures, films, and graphs.