Skip to main content
University of California Press

Eugenic Nation

Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America
by Alexandra Minna Stern (Author)
Paperback eBook
Price: $29.95 / £25.00
Publication Date: Dec 2015
Edition: 2nd Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 424
ISBN: 9780520285064
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 17 b/w
Series:
Request an Exam or Desk Copy(opens in new window)RightsLink(opens in new window)Read an Excerpt(opens in new window)
Recommend to your Library (PDF)(opens in new window)Rights and Permissions

About the Book

First edition, Winner of the Arthur J. Viseltear Prize, American Public Health Association

With an emphasis on the American West, Eugenic Nation explores the long and unsettled history of eugenics in the United States. This expanded second edition includes shocking details demonstrating that eugenics continues to inform institutional and reproductive injustice. Alexandra Minna Stern draws on recently uncovered historical records to reveal patterns of racial bias in California’s sterilization program and documents compelling individual experiences. With the addition of radically new and relevant research, this edition connects the eugenic past to the genomic present with attention to the ethical and social implications of emerging genetic technologies.

About the Author

Alexandra Minna Stern is Professor of American Culture, Obstetrics and Gynecology, History, and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface to the Second Edition
Abbreviations

Introduction
1. Race Betterment and Tropical Medicine in Imperial San Francisco
2. Quarantine and Eugenic Gatekeeping on the US-Mexican Border
3. Instituting Eugenics in California
4. “I Like to Keep My Body Whole”: Reconsidering Eugenic Sterilization in California
5. California’s Eugenic Landscapes
6. Centering Eugenics on the Family
7. Contesting Hereditarianism: Reassessing the 1960s
Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

Reviews

"...a fascinating and mutifaceted contribution to twentieth-century American history."
— Social History
"...a rich narrative of the social, political, and scientific life of the nation, a narrative in which gender and race are central to understanding America's continuing fascination with better breeding." 
— American Historical Review
"Stern meticulously demonstrates the extent to which California eugenics was simultaneously distinct from eugenics in other states and also a major force in the national movement." 
— American Studies
"...Stern has made a significant contribution to the historical record of eugenics."  
— Isis
"With Eugenic Nation Alexandra Stern has refocused the geographical and chronological lens generally used to examine hereditarian impulses in American history. The result is a fascinating and essential contribution to the scholarship on American eugenics." 
— Journal of the History of Biology
"Stern's discussion of eugenics and the family are of particular interest to those debating the relationship between biology and gender. . . . [and] it does provide material for a more nuanced discussion of how sociologists should proceed in the era of the human genome."
— American Journal of Sociology
"Eugenic Nation stunningly traces the cultural continuities in 'better breeding' that refuse to stay in the past."
— Western Historical Quarterly

Praise for Previous Edition:

"At long last, a book about eugenics in California, which sterilized more people than any other state. Eugenic Nation reveals what fueled the movement, including Hispanic immigration, fear of disease, and environmental preservation. In all, an important and thought-provoking book."—Daniel J. Kevles, author of In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity

"Eugenic Nation examines the science of 'better breeding' in the American West, revealing the intimate relations of race science, gender, sexuality, and population policy in the twentieth century. With this important book, Alexandra Minna Stern transforms our understanding of eugenics in the United States."—Warwick Anderson, author of The Cultivation of Whiteness: Science, Health, and Racial Destiny in Australia

Praise for Second Edition:

"Like a scholarly Conestoga wagon, Eugenic Nation opens up new territories in American history. Alexandra Minna Stern brilliantly reveals a distinctly Western style of better breeding, preoccupied with the environment, women, and Latin America. The issues she raises around race, gender, and reproduction continue to plague us. This book has never been more relevant."—Nathaniel Comfort, Johns Hopkins University

"Eugenic Nation meticulously traces eugenicist thinking in the American West across more than a century, emerging in today's prison, welfare, and education systems. By focusing on a previously neglected region and newly discovered sources, Stern offers original insight into the broad reach of "better breeding" in U.S. and global politics, policies, and institutions. Essential reading for everyone concerned about our nation's eugenicist past and interested in a future of reproductive justice."—Dorothy Roberts, Director, Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society, and author of Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty