Steve Mirsky Denies the Influence of Darwin
on Eugenics and Racism
Jerry Bergman, Ph.D.
Scientific American writer Steve Mirsky, in responding to an article that noted the fact that Darwinism had baleful social consequences under the title “Dump Cup,” wrote:
On a chilly, late March day I was happily sipping a Starbucks half-caf when I caught a glimpse of a friend’s cup and narrowly avoided performing a Danny Thomas-style spit take. On the side of the paper cup was printed:
The Way I See It #224 “Darwinism’s impact on traditional social values has not been as benign as its advocates would like us to believe. Despite the efforts of its modern defenders to distance themselves from its baleful social consequences, Darwinism’s connection with eugenics, abortion and racism is a matter of historical record. And the record is not pretty”—Dr. Jonathan Wells, biologist and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design.
Steve Mirsky responded to the above quote as follows:
I knew that Starbucks roasted the hell out of their beans, but I didn’t realize they published half-baked ideas … a closed, disrespectful assertion is going to be a challenge, especially without any context. …I’d like to suggest some other quotes for Starbucks cups in the hopes that they, too, may stimulate piping-hot conversations.
One of the seven Mirsky listed is as follows:
The Way I See It #2 “Popular, palatable views of the world and how it came to be do not constitute science or truth. But decent science education requires that we share the truth we find—whether or not we like it.”—Lynn Margulis, Distinguished Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
My response to Mirsky is, denying that Darwinism “had baleful consequences” is only slightly less rational then denying the Holocaust. To illustrate this well documented fact, below are listed a few of the hundreds of books that document this fact.
A Select Few Annotated References on Darwin’s Influence on Eugenics, Racism, and Nazism
Adams, Mark B. The Well Born Science; Eugenics in German, France, Brazil and Russia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990, 242 pp. This excellent, scholarly history of the eugenics movement has specific chapters on the movement in France, Brazil, Germany and Russia from the late 1800s to the middle 1940s. Adams discusses both the theory of evolution and how the eugenics movement developed from Darwin’s theory. He also reviews the contributions of evolutionary theory to both the development of Communism in Russia as well as the Nazi movement.
Baker, John R. Race. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974, 625 pp. An extensive discussion of the problem of race, species and evolution. The author covers eugenics, the so-called primitive races such as the Australoids, and some of the current controversies today that are related to race, evolution and eugenics.
Bannister, Robert C. Social Darwinism. Science and Myth in Anglo-American Social Thought. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1979, 298 pp. The most comprehensive effort yet to asses the role played by Darwinian ideas in the writings of English language social theorists, and the harm that it caused.
Barzun, Jacques. Race; A Study in Superstition. New York, NY: Harper and Row Publishers, 1937, reprinted and revised in 1965 (original title was Race; A Study in Modern Superstition), 263 pp. A discussion of the biological concept of race and the various contributions of biologists and others in support of eugenics and racial ideas in general. One of the classic studies on the development of biological racism and the attitudes that are still prevalent among racists today.
Baur, Erwin, Eugen Fischer, and Fritz Lenz. Human Heredity. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1931, 734 pp. Translated by Eden and Cedar Paul. This scholarly well documented text book was written by several well known German scientists, all of whom were instrumental in supporting and contributing to the academic racism movement in Germany that resulted in the Holocaust.
Benedict, Ruth. Race; Science and Politics. New York: The Viking Press, 1957, 206 pp. A discussion of the race question by a leading American Anthropologist. Stresses that the biological differences in the modern races are superficial, and that the differences are usually greater within a race than between a race. Concludes that “the Bible story of Adam and Eve, father and mother of the whole human race, told centuries ago the same truth that science has shown today; that all peoples on the earth are a single family and have a common origin.”
Beyerchen, Alan D. Scientists Under Hitler. Politics and the Physics Community in the Third Reich. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977. Details the responses of German physicists, individually and as a professional group, to the Nazi regime from 1933 to the end of the war. The book is based not only on the usual sources, but also on a variety of unpublished materials as well as the author’s interviews with some of the scientists involved in German eugenics movement.
Black, Edwin. War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003, 550 pp. An important work that analyzes the influence of eugenics in both Germany and USA, showing that they had much in common, including the major influence of Darwinism.
Boyd, William C. Genetics and the Races of Man. Boston, MA: Little Brown and Company, 1953, 453 pp. The author attempts to base anthropology on genetics instead of bone measurements, skull configuration and other racial physical characteristics. Covers the work of modern geneticists and its relationship to humans. Much discussion of the “blood-group race,” concept, and endeavors to refute some of the ideas popularized by social Darwinists.
Bradley, Michael. The Iceman Inheritance: Prehistoric Sources of Western Man’s Racism, Sexism and Aggression. New York, NY: Kayode Publications Ltd., 1991. Argues that the white race is more aggressive, racist and sexist than other races due to Darwinian mechanisms of selection. This book has been called racist by its critics.
Brantlinger, Patrick. Dark Vanishing: Discourse on the Extinction of Primitive Races, 1800-1930. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 2003, 248 pp. Documents the thesis that the Darwinian beliefs inevitably results in extinction for inferior groups played a key role in the actual extermination of racial groups. This view also reduced the guilt for the event that it was believed would happen sooner or later as Darwin predicted in his The Descent of Man, p. 190, where he wrote that inferior humans would eventually be eliminated by the survival of the fittest law.
Bruinius, Harry. Better for All the World: The Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America’s Quest for Racial Purity. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006, 401 pp. The history of eugenics in America and the critical influence of Darwinism that resulted in the forced sterilization of 65,000 Americans, many of which were fully normal. The practice of negative eugenics was sanctioned by the supreme court in Buck vs. Bell ruling in an 8 to 1 decision.
Burleigh, Michael and Wolfgang Wippermann. The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945. Cambridge University Press, 386 pp. Covers the Nazi racial policy from 1933-1945 and its tragic results. Notes that, unlike the racist writers before Darwin such as Gobineau, Darwin’s work “enjoyed massive success after its appearance in 1859” (p. 28).
Bytwerk, Randall L. Julius Streicher; The Man Who Persuaded a Nation to Hate Jews. New York, NY: Dorset Press, 1983, 236 pp. Covers the techniques used to cause a civilized nation to murder six million Jews, focusing on the biological theories of eugenics that Streicher accepted and taught in order to carry out his campaign against Jews. Shows that the source of many of the beliefs related to racism and inferior and superior groups comes from social Darwinism.
Campbell, Byram. Race and Social Revolution; Twenty-One Essays on Race and Social Problems. New York, NY: The Truth Seeker Company, 1958, 264 pp. An atheist racist argument that discusses race, eugenics, and related issues, concluding that the white race ideology represents an “ideal race” with worldwide appeal. Concludes that until the dark races change their attitude, there can be no real improvement of the conflicts between the races. Covers race and mongrelization, the brain and intelligence, race, character and temperament, the impact of the monists (by monist he means a soft, tender minded, over concern about other people), concluding that the monists view of “oneness” of the races is a narcotic and that their faith in their monistic belief allows the belief to become their master, and from then on they do not think independently, but use their reason to search for dogmas that will more tightly mesh with their delusions.
______. American Race Theorists; A Critique of Their Thoughts and Methods. San Diego, CA: The Truth Seeker, 159 pp. Attempts to refute the arguments of those who believe in racial equality, specifically evaluating the work of Croeber, Hooton, Gillin, Pierson, and others. Examines many of the empirical studies that indicate either racial equality, or racial inequality, based on cultural factors or differences due to prejudice.
Carlson, Elof Axel. The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2001, 451 pp. An extensive well documented review of the eugenics movement from Darwin to his cousin Galton to the American and Nazi German applications of eugenic ideas.
Castle, William Ernest, John Merle Coulter, Charles Benedict Davenport, Edward Murray East, and William Lawrence Tower. Heredity and Eugenics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1913, 315 pp. An important early text openly advocating eugenics. Davenport was one of the major scientists behind both the American and Nazi eugenics movements.
Chase, Allan. Legacy of Malthus; The Social Costs of a New Scientific Racism. New York, NY: Alfred A Knopf, 1980, 700 pp. One of the most comprehensive accounts of scientific racism, specifically related to the eugenics movement and the work of Galton, Darwin, Davenport and others. Shows how the eugenics movement influenced both many western political movements as well as legislation, adversely affecting a large number of persons, both in this country and in Europe. A hard hitting, no-holds-barred approach to the eugenics movement.
Comas, Juan. Racial Myths. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1951, reprinted in 1976 by Greenwood Press, 51 pp. A discussion of race prepared for the United Nations, specifically focusing on the myth of Aryan or Nordic superiority and the biological theories of genetics and eugenics as well as the cultural background that supported such ideas. Also covers other racial conflicts, such as those involving Blacks, and various other historical racial conflicts.
Conklin, Edwin Grant. Heredity and Environment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1920, 361 pp. An extensive discussion of genetics and heredity as it relates to the evolution of humans. Much of this work deals with eugenics, and the possible methods that eugenic scientists believed, when the book was written, that could be used to facilitate the evolution of humans.
______. The Direction of Human Evolution. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922, 247 pp. A review of the evidence for natural selection of humans, scientific basis for the inequality of humans, and similar topics.
Coon, Carlton S. The Origin of the Races. New York: Knopf, 1962, 745 pp. Argues that the races, like the species to which they belong, are evolving as a group and that much of the evolution of the existing races took place separately in parallel fashion over a period of hundreds of thousands of years. Coon concludes “After examining every scrap of evidence on fossil man,” that five separate lines of human descent exist, each a race and each as old as humankind itself. The orthodox opinion is that the races of humans became differentiated only very recently, in the last few tens of thousands of years, after the appearance of Homo sapiens. Coon claims to have uncovered clear evidence that they separated far earlier, at least as early as the time the first man, Homo erectus, lived.
______. Racial Adaptation; A Study of the Origins, Nature and Significance of Racial Variations in Humans. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall, 1982, 197 pp. One of the more definitive works on the biology of race and the evolutionary origins of race by one of the most controversial modern scientists who has researched and published in the area of race for much of his career.
______. Adventures and Discoveries; The Autobiography of Carlton S. Coon; Anthropologist and Explorer. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1981, 404 pp. Coon, at the time of his death, was a research associate in ethnology at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. This book covers his travels and research, especially in the area of race biology and the eugenics movement.
Cowdry, E.V. (ed) Human Biology and Racial Welfare. New York, NY: Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., 1930, 612 pp. A mammoth work that deals with the gamut of material on the origin of mankind and the races topic, and racial factors in human life. Much discussion of eugenics, the inheritance of disease, the mingling of the races, and the purposeful improvement of the human race (eugenics). Concludes that certain racial mixtures, such as the Chinese-Hawaiian mix, produce superior progeny, but the Negro-White and the Filipino-European crosses produce a racial type “that should be avoided.” Stresses the importance of “good breeding” and that society has a responsibility to prevent the propagation of bodily defects, mental diseases, and moral degeneracy that is inherited.
Cravens, Hamilton. The Triumph of Evolution; American Scientists and the Heredity-Environment Controversy 1900-1941. PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978, 351 pp. Shows that the influence of evolutionary ideas has been as pervasive since the collapse of social Darwinism as before. Covers the emergence of the new generation of evolutionists who were professional scientists in colleges and universities, and the views that they developed, the theory of the interaction of heredity and the environment in the formation of humankind’s nature and culture. Concludes that this synthesis includes the idea that a science of humankind can explain and predict behavior, and cause desirable changes in the future is now possible, thus holding out the intoxicating promise of a high level of social control over humans. Stresses the important implications of evolutionary belief in this period of American history for race, eugenics, mental measurement, testing, psychology of learning and related fields.
Crook, D.P. Benjamin Kidd; Portrait of a Social Darwinist. London: Cambridge, 1984, 460 pp. Focuses on Kidd’s ideas found in his writings from his most famous work, Social Evolution (1894) to his latest book titled Science of Power finished shortly before his death in 1916. Shows that while Kidd was an individualistic social Darwinist, he eventually renounced many of the major aspects both of Darwinism and Imperialism. Kidd’s books and journalistic works once had an extraordinary influence on society; he helped to found the British Sociological Society in the mid-1900s, and became an important leader in several so-called progressive social movements.
Crookshank, F.G. The Mongrel in Our Midst; A Study of Man and His Three Faces. New York, NY; E.P. Dutton, 1924, 124 pp.; 2nd edition 1925; and extensively revised and enlarged in 1931, London: Kegan Paul, 540 pp. Crookshank argues for the view that the three human races evolved from three different primates: the white race evolved from chimpanzees, the Black race from gorillas, and the yellow race from orangutans. Crookshank utilizes evidence from a wide variety of areas to support this contention. Also, much material in the 3rd edition is on the cause of mongolism which Crookshank considered, in part, an atavism, a throwback to our evolutionary ancestors. This book is an example of how much evidence can be stacked up to support a thesis that is totally invalid. The author has an M.D. degree and was a fellow of the Royal College.
Darwin, Charles Galton. The Next Million Years. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc. 1953, 210 pp. The author is a grandson of Charles Darwin, named after Sir Francis Galton (who was his godfather and the man who coined the word eugenic which means “good genes” and spearheaded the now infamous eugenic movement in science). In this work, the author speculates about the future of humankind specifically as related to social and biological conditions. He concludes that humans are wild animals “just like any other species of animal” (p. 115) which fortunately has been tamed by civilization, a process that he calls “pseudo-domestication.” Many of his speculations relative to biological evolution are useful today only for their historical interest.
Degler, Carl N. In Search of Human Nature; Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, 400 pp. An historian who has written much on race, Degler reviews both the history and impact of Darwinism on our understanding of human nature. The implications of Darwinism on racism, sexism and the social Darwinism movement are discussed in detail. Also covered are racism in intelligence testing, the practice of involuntary and forced sterilization, the eugenics movement, speculation relating to the heredity cause of crime, the rise of Nazi Germany, and other movements that relied on Darwinism. The author focuses on the forces behind the Darwinist movement, concluding that ideological reasons, not new biological data, led to an alteration of the Darwinist interpretation of biology.
de Gobineau, Count Arthur (translated by Adrian Collins). The Inequality of the Races. Los Angeles, CA: The Noontide Press, 1966, 218 pp. A translation of the original 1853 French edition of this classic work used by social Darwinists, Adolf Hitler, and others to support their views that certain races were more intelligent and more biologically advanced, and that certain races can be improved through artificial selection and various eugenic policies. This is one of the most infamous of the early “scientific” books on race.
Deichmann, Ute (translated by Thomas Dunlap). Biologists Under Hitler. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1996, 468 pp. A history of the effects of Nazism on the lives and research of the biologists in Nazi Germany. Shows that the biological sciences, especially genetics, were handsomely supported under the Nazis and that many, if not most, biologists supported Hitler’s eugenic goals in various degrees, many very actively. Documents the fact that many internationally well known biologists also actively supported the Nazi goals. For example, Nobel Laureate Konrad Lorenz worked to achieve the “elimination” of “genetically inferior people” as did H.B.S. Haldane (p. 323).
Dowbiggin, Ian Robert. Keeping America Sane: Psychiatry and Eugenics in the United States and Canada, 1880-1940. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997, 245 pp. Details both the passive and active involvement and open support of psychiatry in favor of using eugenics to improve the world. Shows that Darwinism was very influential in the major direction that psychology took during the last century.
Duncan, Hannibal Gerald. Race and Population Problems. New York, NY: Longman’s Green and Company, 1929, 424 pp. Covers a wide variety of topics relative to evolution, including the origin of mankind and the formation of, and modern means of, classifying the human races. Much discussion of biology and race problems, heredity and eugenics, the problem of inferiority and superiority of races, and the amalgamation of the races. Also covers the dysgenic effects of wars and religion on the human population, and pre Malthusian and Malthusian theories of population. A good review of a wide variety of material related to the once popular views on eugenics, race, and population concerns among scientists and others.
Dunn, L.C. Heredity and Evolution in Human Populations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959, 157 pp. Covers the principle of heredity as applied to human populations, specifically focusing on genes, and evolution and how these fields help us to understand the evolution of the different races. Also, covers various other related topics, such as isolated populations, the influence of natural selection, and the eugenics movement.
______. and Theodosius Dobzhansky. Heredity, Race and Society; A Scientific Explanation of Human Differences. New York, NY: The New American Library, 1946 (16th printing, October, 1964), 144 pp. Discusses various fads and theories about heredity, and the roles of genes, environment, geography and culture (and their interrelationships). The author focuses on eugenics and the problems and ramifications of combining the races to produce the infinite variety of peoples that makes up the human race. A major theme is that humans are a product of evolution, and the use of evolutionary data are necessary in understanding race differences.
Ellingson, Ter. The Myth of the Noble Savage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001, 445 pp. A study and analysis of the Noble Savage Myth invented by Rousseau in the mid-eighteenth century. Follows the career of anthropologists John Crawford and his racist agenda in some detail in order to explain the events of this myth in history.
Engs, Ruth Clifford. The Eugenics Movement: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 2005. 280 pp. A well-illustrated detailed encyclopedia of the American eugenics movement and the many scientists involved in the movement. Engs is professor of applied health science at Indiana State University.
Evola, Julius. Race As a Revolutionary Idea. Arab, LA: Western Unity Research Institute, 25 pp. (n.d.). Concludes that the race doctrine is anti-historical and anti-evolutionist because racism is based on early civilizations in which racial mixing had not reached the point that it has today. Today we have, due to race mixing, a much more heterogeneous, race mixed human form.
Eysenck, H.J. and Leon Kamin. The Intelligence Controversy; Environment or Heredity? New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 1981, 192 pp. A series of writings by the foremost spokesperson’s on each side of the question of the influence of genetics on human intelligence. Eysenck insists that the root of IQ differences are genetic, Kamin that environmental factors play the crucial role. Much discussion on the influence of evolution, eugenics as well as other topics related to the eugenics movement such as race, and the nature/nurture controversy as a whole.
Firth, Raymond. Human Types. New York, NY: New American Library, 1958, 176 pp. A discussion of the various similarities and differences in the human races and the implications thereof. Evolution, eugenics and the significance of alleged differences in I.Q. in the races, and the alleged biological basis of these differences are all covered in detail.
Fleure, H.J. The Races of Mankind. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1928, 78 pp. An unusual book for 1928 that argued, correctly we now know, that more differences exist within any one race then between any two races and that race is primarily a sociological, not a biological concept.
Galton, Francis. Hereditary Genius. New York: Macmillan, 1892, 379 pp. This important work, which is still in print, was and is a major foundation of the modern eugenics movement. Galton tried to prove talent is heredity and not due to the environment. It is for this reason why social programs designed to lift the poor up from their situation are very limited in what they can achieve.
______. Hereditary Genius. Gloucester, MA: the World Publishing Company, 1972, 446 pp. Introduction by C.D. Darlington. This work, first published in 1869, is one of the first books published defending Darwinian eugenics.
Garn, Stanley M. Human Races. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publishers, 1961, 137 pp. A discussion of the biological concept of race, both from a historical, and biological evolution standpoint. Covers much material related to the eugenics movement and the biology of race differences. Also covers such topics as blood groups and race, natural selection and race, the results of race mixtures, race and disease, and related.
Gasman, Daniel. The Scientific Origins of National Socialism. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2004, 208 pp. A study of the major influence of Darwinism on, not only Nazism, but fascism as well, especially Haeckel’s “scientific” Darwinism and his movement in Germany.
Gillham, Nicholas Wright. A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, 416 pp. An excellent study of Galton showing the importance of his cousin’s (Charles Darwin) theory on the development of eugenics and social Darwinism.
Goldsby, Richard A. Race and Races. New York, NY: Macmillan Company, 1971, 132 pp. The author, a professor of biology at Yale, covers the biological, evolutionary, and cultural factors related to the study of the origins of the human races. Shows that an enormous amount of variety exists within any species, and that much of this is biologically irrelevant but, in the case of humans, is culturally important. Also discusses biological racial indicators, race and natural selection, as well as the background of the history the influence of evolution on race views.
Graham, Robert Klark. The Future of Man. Escondido, CA: Foundation for the Advancement of Man, 1981, 101 pp. An attempt to apply passive eugenics to modern society by selective reproduction. Shows that eugenics is still alive and well in America.
Graves, Joseph. The Emperor’s New Clothes. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2001, 253 pp. Concludes that separate human races do not exist as a biological entity, and racism is actually an ideology. Covers the scientific problems with eugenics in detail.
Guyer, Michael F. Being Well-Born; An Introduction to Heredity and Eugenics. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1927, 490 pp. A genetics text that argues in favor of eugenics based on the science of Darwinism. Argues that the environment is often less important then genetics (p. 365, for example). An example is, he argues that most delinquents and other socially maladaptive persons were born mentally deficient.
Hall, E. Raymond. Zoological Subspecies of Man. New York, NY: International Association of the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics, 7 pp. Hall classifies all humans into five subspecies, the Caucasians, American Indian, Mongolian, Negro, and Australian Blacks, concluding that human races are a product of evolution and directly relate to their survival differences that were selected by natural selection.
Haller, John S. Outcasts From Evolution; Scientific Attitudes of Racial Inferiority 1859-1900. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1971, 228 pp. Concludes that the racial inferiority of blacks view was fully accepted by scientists in the 19th century not only in biology, but also medicine, anthropology, and other sciences. These sciences became instruments used to try to “verify” evolutionary theories of racism and race extinction, which helped to rationalize governmental politics of disenfranchisement and segregation. Extensively discusses the social Darwinists and their contribution to biological race inferiority theories.
Haller, Mark H. Eugenics; Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1963, 264 pp. The first comprehensive history of the rise and fall of the eugenics movement in the United States. Extensively covers the influence of contemporary social attitudes on eugenics, Darwinian evolution, and scientific research of the time in eugenics and its contribution to the eugenics movement.
Hannaford, Ivan. Race: The History of an Idea in the West. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, 448 pp. Foreword by Bernard Crick. Shows race is not a universal idea, not even in the West. Concludes that the first traces of the modern concept of race was in the proto-sciences of the late medieval period but that the modern notion of race became popular only in the 19th and 20th centuries. Also documents the critical influence Darwinism had on racism, especially his idea of natural and social selection (p. 274).
Hasskarl, G. H. The Missing Link; or the Negroes Ethnological Status. Chambersburg, PA: The Democratic News, 1898, 153 pp. An interesting in-depth discussion of the various views on the biological and social “place” of Negroes in the human race. Among the views considered are that Negroes were not part of the Adamic race, but a separate creation by God, and thus are not human, but an undesirable type of animal, or they are the sons of Shem, thus inferior.
Hawkins, Mike. Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860-1945—Nature as a Model and Nature as Threat. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 344 pp. A new study focusing on the effects of Social Darwinism and the role that Darwin, Lamarck and Herbert Spencer played in the Social Darwinism movement. Shows Social Darwinism contributed not only to socialism, but also to anarchism and even anti-democracy movements, and that Social Darwinism underpinned the Nazi war policies (p. 272).
Haycraft, John Barry. Darwinism and Race Progress. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1895, 180 pp. Discusses the influence of Darwinism on the progress of the races to achieve human rights in the United States and the world. Covers Lamarck’s views on heredity, Darwin’s law of natural selection, and the work of Galton, and Weismann on eugenics. Often argues in favor of social Darwinism, yet is often critical of many of the ideas advocated by this school of thought.
Hazlewood, Nick. Savage: The Life and Times of Jemmy Button. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000, 384 pp. The tragic story of the massacre of the Fuegians, focusing on Jemmy Button who lived for a time in England in order to become “civilized.” The plan was then for him to go back home to again live with his people and civilize them as well. It turned out that once home, instead of civilizing his people he went back to his “primitive” way of life and thought. The experiment had a major influence on Darwin’s work and ideas about “primitive” people.
Hofstadter, Richard. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston, MA: Bacon Press, 1944, reprinted in 1955, 248 pp. Traces the intellectual traditions and personal temperaments of the thinkers that were part of the social Darwinism movement, specifically in America. This book is one of the more authoritative histories of both social Darwinism, and its opposition in America. Also covers the work of Lester Ward, William Sumner, Herbert Spencer and other prominent intellectuals and professors involved in leading the social Darwin movement.
Hooton, Earnest Albert. Apes, Men, and Morons. NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1937, 308 pp. Hooton was professor of anthropology at Harvard University and curator of Peabody museum, Harvard University. This work is on the evolution of the races and an examination of the fossil evidence, including, especially, teeth and bone.
______. Twilight of Man. New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939, 308 pp. Concludes that man made himself out of an ape by the use of tools, and that a reappraisal of the human species is necessary to understand, especially, the physical changes that have taken place in the last few generations of Americans. Stresses that maintenance of organic fitness and a high level of individual intelligence is necessary for our society to survive. Much discussion of full-blooded marriages versus mixed marriages involving Jews and Blacks; stresses the importance of eugenic principles in dealing with these problems.
______. Why Men Behave Like Apes and Vice Versa or Body and Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941, 234 pp. One of the many works by social Darwinist Hooton that concludes that our civilization has been “seduced” into preserving its misfits, and in giving humanitarian aid that will, in essence, eventually result in the ruin of humankind. Stresses that we must clear the road for the biologically fit and that only by applying Darwinian type of natural selection, i.e., the science of eugenics, can we deal with some of the many social problems that now plague society. Hooton, a full professor of anthropology at Harvard, was a colorful leader of the eugenics movement in America for many years.
______. Man’s Poor Relations. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran, and Company, 1942, 412 pp. A text on the higher primates, especially those that resemble humans, showing their close relationships with humans and, he concludes, documents that humans evolved from lower primates.
______. Young Man, You are Normal. New York: Putnam, 1945, 210 pp. A review of the research on “normal” humans or, in Holton’s words, “young male animals of the human species.” The data used for the study was a sample of 268 Harvard undergraduates collected during six years.
______. Up From the Ape. New York, NY: Macmillan Company Revised Ed., 1960 (original edition, 1946) 788 pp. A review of the evidence for evolution which includes a large amount of speculation. The work is useful today because it is openly racist, concluding that the different races have evolved to different levels of intelligence and higher traits. Much discussion of racism in society, and the origins of races, concluding that both the African Negro and the White evolved from the Eoanthropus, whereas the Australian race evolved from Pithecanthropus. Many of the widely accepted racist stereotypes of the 1930s and 1940s are vividly reflected in this work. The work contains an enormous amount of information and is very useful as a summary of a wide variety of studies completed in the early 1900s.
Jacquard, Albert. In Praise of Difference; Genetics and Human Affairs. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1984, 187 pp. The author, a demographer and population geneticist in Paris, endeavors to explain in lay terms the cause of the genetic diversity existing in humans and its implications for us. Focuses on the development of populations in the human race as a whole, and eugenics, specifically the dysgenic aspects, stressing that only one race made up of billions of individuals exists. Also discusses evolutionary theory and how it has been used to justify racism.
______. Translated by Margaret Moriarty. Endangered by Science? New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1985, 216 pp. This discussion of some of the problems of applying science in general to society focuses on the misapplication of science findings to society problems. Also covers the application of biology, specifically evolution, to society and its effects on racial prejudice, population genetics, the debates about IQ performance and race and related topics. Concludes that beliefs as diverse as racial prejudice and the need for nuclear weapons all were justified because they are based on science, specifically evolution. Notes that Hitler and others argued for war in terms of the need to continue natural selection and that many racists argued that race is purely the product of evolution and without natural selection evolution would stop. The author concludes that science is a set of ideas developed by scientists and how it is used (and often misused) by non-scientists is the major problem. A major topic of this work is natural selection and its use to justify racism and biological discrimination as a whole.
Jones, Greta. Social Darwinism and English Thought; The Interaction Between Biological and Social Theory. New Jersey: The Humanities Press, 1980, 234 pp. Discusses the impact of Darwinism on English thought, especially the relationship between social thought and social structure. A specific focus is on social Darwin ideas and the development of British racism. Jones concludes that Darwin’s later work, The Descent of Man, in contrast to his earlier 1859 Origin of the Species, borrowed heavily from contemporary psychological and anthropological works, intertwining philosophical and scientific issues and their effects on political behavior.
Kevles, Daniel J. In the Name of Eugenics; Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity. New York, NY: Alfred A Knopf Company, 1985, 426 pp. An excellent history of the practice of eugenics from its inception in the late 19th century to its more recent manifestations in social philosophy and policy. Focuses specifically on theories of Francis Galton and other evolutionists who developed “scientific proof” that the inferiority of certain races, as well as mental deficiency, criminality, and all types of deviant behavior, were fundamentally hereditary in origin, thus could be reduced by eugenics. This is one of the most detailed chronicles of the eugenics movement, beginning with Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, who coined the word eugenics. The theory is traced from Galton to Carl Pearson (who developed the science of statistics to determine the effectiveness of existing methods to produce a superior race) to Charles Davenport. This is an excellent study of the tragedy of the naive application of evolutionary theory to human problems, a theory that resulted in the illusion that one can identify everything from mental defectiveness, to criminality, to all matter of deviant behavior, the influence of genes. Covers the efforts to use eugenics to create a more perfect world that culminated in the direct application of evolution by the German government during World War II, resulting in the Holocaust.
Kidd, Benjamin. Social Evolution. New York: Macmillan and Company, 1894, 348 pp. Although Social Evolution was Kidd’s first book, it was an immediate and enormous success. In it Kidd developed a collectivist form of social Darwinism in which he tried to harmonize Darwinism with the values of progressivism in the West. Much of the work is an exposition of Kidd’s theory of society, specifically based on his theories of social Darwinism. This is still Benjamin Kidd’s most famous work and, although some argue that this book promotes a fiercely individualistic genetically determined white racist social Darwinism, others conclude that this interpretation is simplistic and not a totally fair assessment of this work. Interestingly, with the onset of World War I, Kidd renounced his belief in Darwinism and imperialism, advocating a cultural revolution and world cooperation to achieve peace and advance social progress.
King, James C. The Biology of Race, Revised Edition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1981, 180 pp. This introduction to the biological concept of race discusses genetic variation between human groups and the implication of this conclusion. Provides an understanding of how biotic programs define the species, and the significance of the difference. Much discussion of the eugenics movement and related.
Klass, Morton and Hal Hellman. The Kinds of Mankind; An Introduction to Race and Racism. Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1971, 219 pp. An inquiry about the biological nature of race, and an examination of the attitudes that have developed about this topic. Argues that the major ideas of modern racism came from the work of Charles Darwin and Russell Wallace, that race is an inexact term, and that humans are one species. Much discussion on natural selection and race, the survival of the fittest concept, and related issues.
Kühl, Stefan. The Nazi Connection; Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, 166 pp. An indictment of American scientists who inspired and supported Nazi racist ideology and programs. Notes that a large number of scientists gave respectability to the early, as well as the later, Nazi racism and eugenic programs. Hitler held up foreign law as a model for his programs of racial purification, specifically American law.
Larson, Edward John. Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, 252 pp. Covers a series of distinct campaigns for legislation at the state level in support of various eugenic programs in the southern states of Americans.
Leakey, Richard E. Race, Evolution and Mankind. New York, NY: Basic Books, Inc., 1966, 280 p. A discussion of the process of specie classification, the causes of variation, including human racial variation, the origin of races and variations in living humans, and the racial structure of humans. Attempts to deal with some of the claims of social Darwinists, specifically the view that the different races have a separate evolutionary history and can be classified in terms of advanced and less advanced evolution.
MacDougall, Hougha. Racial Myth in English History. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1982, 146 pp. An extensive discussion of racial myths, especially their importance in the formation of the English national identity. Also examines racial myths in the teachings of Charles Darwin, Max Mueller, Karl Pearson and other persons associated with, or who influenced, the early eugenics movement.
Malalasekera, George. Buddhism and the Race Question. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978, 73 pp. Covers a variety of topics relative to race and evolution, specifically related to Buddhism and its teachings about humankind’s place in the universe. Stresses the spiritual unity of all mankind and the usefulness, but limitations, of various biological theories of the origins of race.
Mead, Margaret, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ethel Tobach and Robert E. Light (ed.) Science and the Concept of Race. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1968, 177 pp. Focuses on the concept of race, especially as it is related to eugenics, inferior and superior races, and eugenics as a whole. Discusses both the biological and sociological concepts of race, although the focus is clearly on the biological.
Mirsky, Steve. “Dumb Cup: Recipe for a Steaming Cup of Something.” Scientific American, June 2007, p. 102. This article contains the Starbucks paper coffee cup conversations quoted in the beginning of this Eugenics Bibliography on page 1.
Montague, Ashley. Man’s Most Dangerous Myth; The Fallacy of Race. New York, NY: Harper and Brothers, Inc., 1953, 362 pp. Originally published in 1942, this volume has become the classic work attacking the view that certain races (specifically the American Blacks and the Semitic groups) are inherently inferior or superior to others. Utilizes much biological data as well as empirical research that demonstrates the ethnic similarities are far stronger than their differences. Very critical of the eugenics movement and the application of Darwinism and natural selection to humans and especially race.
______ (ed). Race and IQ New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1975, 322 pp. Expanded edition 1999, 486 pp. This topic, first discussed in Montague Man’s Most Dangerous Myth, concludes that race is in general an unusable concept in order to group humans. This work includes fifteen authorities covering fields primarily in biology, genetics and anthropology, but also in psychology and education. Specifically looks at innate intelligence as related to ethnic groups or races.
______. Sociobiology Examined. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1980, 355 pp. A series of readings critical of sociobiology. All of the fifteen contributors challenge the conclusion that social behavior has a primary heredity basis, concluding that, while much human behavior has a genetic basis, this is quite different than claiming that such behavior is genetically determined.
______. The Natural Superiority of Women. 5th edition. Walnut Creek: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999, 335 pp. First published in 1953, this classic and well-documented study argues that female humans are in many ways superior to male humans.
Morris, Charles. The Aryan Race: Its Origin and Its Achievements. Chicago, IL: S.C. Griggs, second edition, 1892, 347 pp. An early book that argues on scientific grounds that Aryans are superior to other races. Concludes “Negroes can only imitate” and the “Chinese only utilize the work of the Whites” (p. 27), and “Negroes will long exist as a working caste under Aryan dominance” (p. 316).
Mosse, George L. Nazi Culture; Intellectual, Cultural, and Social Life in the Third Reich. New York, NY: Schocken Books, 1966, 386 pp. An extensive discussion of Nazism, focusing on science and how the Nazis based their views of racism, and the belief that a superior race could be produced, by accepted contemporary orthodox science. Mosse lays much of the blame for Nazism on the support that the scientific establishment of the time gave racist ideas. This research was then utilized to help justify the Nazi’s deep seated hatred against Jews and other races.
Müller-Hill, Benno. Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others—Germany 1933-1945. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988, 208 pp. A study of German science and the Holocaust, concluding that many high level academics and institutions directly supported or made major contributions to the Nazi horrors, especially scientists and physicians. Also notes that not only Darwinism, but also the science of human genetics, played a crucial role.
Nesturkh, M. The Races of Mankind. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1966, 113 pp. A review of how racial traits are measured, the basis of determining race traits, a history of racism, and why science argues today that all the races are equal or, at least, that no significant difference exists between them.
Numbers, Ronald L. and John Stenhouse. Disseminating Darwinism; The Role of Place, Race, Religion, and Gender. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2001 (pb ed), 300 pp. A history of Darwinism and its interaction with, and influence on, race and eugenics.
Ordover, Nancy. American Eugenics: Race, Queer Anatomy, and the Science of Nationalism. Minneapolis, MN: 2003, 297 pp. Concludes eugenics has a long history in the states, and is still alive and well, in America.
Ott, Edward Amherst. “Sour Grapes” or Heredity and Marriage. Chicago, IL: The Lyceumite Press, 1896, 128 pp.
Stresses that the betterment of the human race can be achieved only by the application of eugenics principles as discovered by Charles Darwin and other evolutionists. Concludes that certain races, such as Blacks, are evolutionarily inferior, and neither culture nor society is able to bring them up to the status of Whites. Uses comparisons with horticultural examples to illustrate the potential good fruit of eugenics.
Pagliaro, Harold E. (editor). Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture: Volume 3—Racism in the Eighteenth Century. Cleveland, OH: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1973, 468 pp. A collection of classic readings about the influence of Darwinian race ideas in America.
Paul, Diane B. Controlling Human Heredity. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1995, 158 pp. A review of the history of eugenics and the harm it has done to humanity in America, Germany and elsewhere. Includes many very useful illustrations.
Proctor, Robert N. Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988, 414 pp. An important summary of the application of natural selection and the philosophy of eugenics in Nazi Germany. Much discussion about evolutionary theory and its major influence in the development of racism in Nazi Germany.
Rafter, Nicole Hahn. Creating Born Criminals. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1997, 284 pp. Covers the critical negative role of Darwinism in criminal eugenics, the theory that genetics, not the environment, is central, or at least critical, in causing criminality.
Redfield, Casper Lavater. Control of Heredity: A Study of the Genesis of Evolution and Degeneracy. Chicago, IL: Alfred C. Clark, 1903, 343 pp. An early work on evolution and its importance in eugenics and other fields.
Rife, David C. Dice of Destiny; Introduction to Human Heredity and Racial Variations. Columbus, Ohio: Long’s College Book Company, 1945, 179 pp. This review of the study of heredity and the implications of this field for racial differences discusses a wide variety of topics, including the eugenics movement. The focus is on the biological background needed to help the reader understand the controversy and the many issues involved.
Roberts, Dorothy. Killing the Black Body; Race Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty. New York: Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 1997, 374 pp. A history of the “assault” of the American government against the reproductive rights of Black women, partly as a result of the eugenics movement.
Rosen, Christine. Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement. Oxford, NY: Oxford, 2004, 286 pp. A well documented history of the major role that religious leaders took in supporting eugenic and Darwinism movements.
Rosenberg, Alexander. Darwinism in Philosophy, Social Science and Policy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000, 257 pp. On the implications of naturalism and Darwinism in our society, stressing that there are important limits to these ideas in solving the many social problems in our society.
Rushton, J. Philippe. Race, Evolution and Behavior. Somerset, NJ: Transaction, 1999, 108 pp. Abridged edition.
A controversial book that attempts to show racial differences are biased, as are various other human traits including I.Q., on genetics. Thus eugenics is a viable solution to many social problems.
Russett, Cynthia Eagle. Sexual Science: The Victorian Construction of Womanhood. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. One of the most scholarly reviews of the history of the attitude toward women held by most early Darwinists. A must for all scholars in this area.
Scharff, Robert Francis. Distribution and Origin of Life in America. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1912, 497 pp. An early text that covers both Darwinism and eugenics. This text and others like it set the stage for eugenic programs in America, Nazi Germany and elsewhere.
Schwarcz, Lilia Moritz. The Spectacle of the Races: Scientists, Institutions, and the Race Question in Brazil, 1870-1930. New York: Hill and Wang, 1999, 358 pp. Translated by Leland Guyer. Concludes Brazil’s scientists and politicians gratefully accepted social Darwinism, including its ideas about innate racial differences, yet could not condemn the miscegenation which occurred almost everywhere in Brazil.
Shanklin, Eugenia. Anthropology & Race. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1994, 136 pp. An excellent textbook discussion of the whole problem of race, Darwinism, and Eugenics.
Shannon, T.W. Eugenics Topeka, KS: Standard Publishing Company, Inc., 1920, 256 pp. A textbook that discusses the eugenic viewpoint, specifically relative to the choice of a marriage mate and having children. Stresses not only biological concerns, but also sociological and spiritual issues. Of little use today except for insight on the historical beliefs that were once popular among certain groups in society, especially scientists.
Smith, J. David. Minds Made Feeble; The Myth and Legacy of the Kallikaks. Rockville, MD: Aspen Systems Communication, 1985, 205 pp. An extensive review of the New Jersey family that eugenists used to prove the theory that mental retardation and other similar social problems were inherited. The major focus is on refuting Goddards treatise on the Kallikak family, originally published in 1912, which became one of the most influential weapons in the science of race betterment and eugenics.
Starkweather, George Briggs. Biogenic Marvels; The Romance of Biology Disclosing Man’s Infinite Potentialities. Washington, DC: The Biogenic Press, 1925, 746 pp. plus 124 pp. Discusses the work of the Starkweather Biogenic Foundation which utilized biogenics to attempt to ”improve” the human race. Gives much background, many case histories, etc., to prove the advantages of proper eugenics to society. Concludes that the evolutionary process is still going on, and that there is much room for race improvement which can be achieved through intelligent utilization of the laws which Darwin and other evolutionists have discovered.
Steinweis, Alan E. Studying the Jew: Antisemitism in Nazi Germany. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. 2006. 203 pp. A study of the antisemitic movement, covering in detail the various factors that contributed to it, including Darwinism.
Sumner, William Graham (Edited by William E. Leuchtenburg and Bernard Wishy). Social Darwinism; Selected Essays of William Graham Sumner. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963, 181 pp. A collection of essays published around 1880s on Social Darwinism. Sumner, who lived from 1840 to 1910, was an active eugenicists and a disciple of Herbert Spencer, and Darwin was his hero.
Szollosi-Janze, Margit (Editor). Science in the Third Reich. Oxford, NY: Berg, 2001, 289 pp. A history of the major role that scientists played in Nazi Germany, especially in the Holocaust. Notes that many scientists “tended to see war as an effective means for selecting the superior qualities of a race” (p. 188).
Terry, Jennifer and Jacqueline Urla (Editors). Deviant Bodies. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1995, 416 pp. A collection of articles on how society has treated certain groups of people, such as those deemed by the Nazis as living “lives not worth living.”
Tobach, Ethel and John Gianusos, Howard R. Topoff and Charles G. Gross. The Four Horsemen; Racism, Sexism, Militarism, and Social Darwinism. New York, NY: Behavioral Publications, 1974, 123 pp. An extensive discussion of the science of genetic control and social Darwinism and its relationship to racism. This work originated in a 1972 symposium on racism and social Darwinism and related topics.
Weikart, Richard. Socialist Darwinism: Evolution in German Socialist Thought From Marx to Bernstein. Latham, MD International Publications, 1998, 257 pp. A history of the important influence of Darwinism on socialism in Germany in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Shows how widely and uncritically Darwinism was embraced in Europe. Also covers the opposition to Darwinism by biologists
_______. From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany. Palgrave Macmillan. New York. A well-documented history of the role that Darwinism played in the racism and the Holocaust that occurred in Nazi Germany.
Weindling, Paul. Health, Race and German Politics Between National Unification and Nazism 1870-1945. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1989, 641 pp. One of the most extensive works discussing the German application of the Darwinian laws of natural selection and evolution in general to their medical programs. Much discussion on the effects of racial ideas on biology, specifically as utilized by the medical profession in public health services. Concludes that many doctors sought to solve the nation’s social ills by racist policies.
Wetzell, Richard F. Inventing the Criminal: A History of German Criminology, 1880-1945. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000, 348 pp. A well documented history of the adverse influence of Darwinism and the eugenic movement on the correction field as a whole.
Whitehead, George G. Environment versus Heredity; Debate Between Clarence Darrow and Albert Edward Wiggam. Gerard, KS: Haldeman-Julius Publishers, 42 pp. c. 1925. Darrow argued that the environment is the primary influence in human development, and Wiggam argued that heredity served this role. This debate occurred in the Cleveland Public Auditorium, and the referee and timer was Peter Witt.
Wiggam, Albert Edward. New Decalogue of Science. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Company, Inc., 1922, 303 pp. One of the more direct books openly advocating eugenics, Wiggam stressed that Christianity is the opposite of evolution and that helping the weak and genetically less fit may seem charitable and proper, but in the long-run is dysfunctional to society. Human sympathy must be linked to a higher understanding of eugenics. Biology and the science of genetics must be applied to society to improve humankind’s long-term condition, and inferior individuals must be saved for everything but reproduction so as to preserve the superior biological race. Gives a number of examples of the success of eugenics, and the scientific evidence that proves this view.
______. The Fruit of the Family Tree. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs Merrill Company, 1924, 391 pp. A discussion of the scientific and sociological evidence for the eugenic position. Utilizes a large number of studies, specifically twin studies, research on cousin marriages, and the inheritance of diseases among royalty and other groups in which a high level of intermarriage is practiced. Concludes that our race can be improved only by the application of eugenics and that women play an important role in this goal.
______. The Marks of An Educated Man. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs Merrill Company, 1925, 339 pp. A work by a well-known eugenicist that discusses some of the implications of his theory to society, especially as related to education, psychology, and other social sciences.
______. The Next Age of Man. Indianapolis, IN: Bobs Merrill Company, 1927, 418 pp. Stresses why the science of eugenics is the only solution for the major ills of humans, and that it must be applied by the government in order to effectively deal with the social issues and problems around us.
Williams, Roger J.P. Free and Unequal; The Biological Basis of Individual Liberty. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Press, 1979 (originally published in 1953 by the University of Texas Press), 363 pp. The author, a past president of the American Chemical Society, is the author of numerous books on chemistry, nutrition and vitamins. In this work, he stresses that major differences exist in human races, especially as revealed in the study of heredity as it relates to the problem of humanity, eugenics, and related areas. Concludes that if humans had not developed races, they would constitute the only exception in the entire biological kingdom. Points out that speciation is the source of evolution, and thus the importance of race variation in evolution cannot be underestimated.
Williams, Vernon J., Jr. Rethinking Race: Franz Boas and His Contemporaries. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1996, 152 pp. A history of one of the few scientists who opposed the Darwin inspired eugenics movement. Boas was at Columbia University and faced much opposition for his stand.
Winchell, Alexander. Proof of Negro Inferiority. Metairie, LA: Sons of Liberty, 1982 reprint of the original first edition published in about 1895, 25 pp. Concludes that the Negro race is biologically inferior, and that the Hottentots are close to gorillas. Makes many comparisons between the black races and other primates, including facial traits, brain characteristics, skeletal characteristics and related.
Zimmerman, Andrew. Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2001, 364 pp. Argues that the wide acceptance of Darwinism among German anthropologists in the first decade of the 20th century caused a critical shift in anthropology as a field and in German society as a whole (p. 214). He concludes for better or for worse German anthropologists embraced Darwinism and applied it to humans (p. 214). He then details some of the many tragic effects of the acceptance of Darwinism. One of the more benign is a fascination with “freaks,” or inferior humans, and “ethnographic performances” to the “racial hygienics” problem, including “national socialism” (Nazism), which contributed to the Holocaust (pp. 46, 241-243).