preview

American Eugenics Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

Jessica Sullivan
History 118
12/6/2014

Motivating Hitler: How The American Eugenics Movement Laid the Framework for Hitler’s Quest for A “Master Race”.

One of the most memorable, albeit horrifying events in history is unquestionably the intended total extermination of the Jewish people: the Holocaust. Through the use of racist propaganda, coupled with the ability to play on the fears of the German people after World War One and backed by the pseudoscientific ideology of Eugenics; Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party were able to commit mass genocide of the Jewish people. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party had made earlier, lesser-known attempts to purge Germany of its citizens that were deemed hereditarily inferior by way of compulsory sterilization. It is estimated that Nazi doctors sterilized about 400,000 people in the six years …show more content…

Francis Galton’s ideas on heredity were based on the theories of heredity and evolution within The Origin of Species, written by his cousin, Charles Darwin. Galton sought to apply Darwin’s concept of selective breeding to man in an effort to improve upon British society. When speaking to the Sociological Society at London University in 1904, Galton defined eugenics as: “ the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with those that develop them to the utmost advantage”(1904). Galton’s initial attempts to apply the concept of eugenics to the improvement of humanity proved futile, up until 1900. According to the historian, Allen E Garland, “ With the rediscovery of Mendel’s law of heredity in 1900, however, the study of heredity in general and eugenics in particular found fertile ground, particularly in the United States (225). Eugenics would fast become a prevalent movement the world over, but nowhere more so than in the United States and

Get Access