Modernism and Eugenics

Modernism and Eugenics comprehensively explores modern Europe's fixation with eugenic programmes of racial and national purification. It convincingly demonstrates that between 1870 and 1940 eugenicists were not only preoccupied with rescuing the individual from the anomie of modernity but equally championed a glorious racial destiny for the nation.

“Modernism and Eugenics … must be recommended to anyone who would like to discover the contents of eugenics; who aspires to understand the way in which it became a political catalyst aimed at controlling and managing the phenomenon of disability in the first decades of the twentieth century; or who simply is interested in finding out the origin of some of the ways disabled people were perceived, ways that regrettably still remain too alive in some sectors of contemporary societies.” (José Martinez-Pérez, H-Net Humanities & Social Sciences Online, networks.h-net.org, June, 2016)

“Is definitely a milestone book, not only as an overview of the European discourse of eugenics, but for our understanding of eugenics as a fundamental part of European history in the twentieth century ... .” (Björn Michael Felder, Historische Zeitschrift)

“A stimulating challenge to think more precisely about the role of scientific research in the development of eugenic policies and about the place of eugenics in the broader picture of social politics.' (Nils Roll-Hansen, Metascience)

“Turda's book offers a very concise primer on the discourse of eugenics for scholars interested in the transnational character of eugenics in Europe in the turbulent years of 1870-1940 ... .” (Routledge ABES June 2011)

“Modernism and Eugenics is aimed at academic and popular audiences, and certainly deserves wide readership. Historians of medicine will benefit from seeing eugenics as a modernist phenomenon...General readers and students, meanwhile, will find it a concise and well-argued introduction to one of the most troubling episodes in the history of medicine.” (Ducan Wilson, University of Manchester, Social History of Medicine)

“The most authoritative single-authored work on the transnational eugenics movement yet produced, Turda's book represents the cutting edge of research. Modernism and Eugenics raises compelling and difficult questions about the relationship of eugenics with race, modernity and nationalism that will be debated for a long time to come.” (Dan Stone, Professor of Modern History, Royal Holloway, University of London)

“Modernism and Eugenics adds a new, doubtless illuminating, perspective to the historiography ... .” (European Review of History, Liisi Keedus, Tartu University)

“Turda significantly enhances and complicates the history of eugenics by advancing several compelling claims that engage with central historiographical themes..." (Medical History, Devon Stillwell, McMaster University)

“Turda has presented a new paradigm for the study of eugenics that will no doubt prove influential in years to come.” (Bradley W. Hart, California State University, Patterns of Prejudice)

MARIUS TURDA  is Deputy Director, Centre for Health, Medicine and Society, Oxford Brookes University, UK, founder of the international Working Group on the History of Race and Eugenics (Oxford Brookes), and the series editor of Studies in the History of Medicine with CEU Press in Budapest. He has published widely on the comparative history of eugenics and race.