Editors:
First book to consider the history of eugenics within British colonial contexts
Offers a comparative approach to the history of eugenics movements in four British colonies: New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa
Of interest to historians of mental health, science, medicine, race, religion, gender and colonialism
Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This volume explores the history of eugenics in four Dominions of the British Empire: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. These self-governing colonies reshaped ideas absorbed from the metropole in accord with local conditions and ideals. Compared to Britain (and the US, Germany, and Scandinavia), their orientation was generally less hereditarian and more populist and agrarian. It also reflected the view that these young and enterprising societies could potentially show Britain the way — if they were protected from internal and external threat. This volume contributes to the increasingly comparative and international literature on the history of eugenics and to several ongoing historiographic debates, especially around issues of race. As white-settler societies, questions related to racial mixing and purity were inescapable, and a notable contribution of this volume is its attention to Indigenous populations, both as targets and on occasion agents of eugenic ideology.
Reviews
“Eugenics at the Edges of Empire: New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa is a wide-ranging … examination of eugenic thought across the British Empire. The broad contexts investigated and the interdisciplinary nature … make it valuable not only to scholars of eugenics, but also the history of psychiatry, settler colonialism and gender, among others.” (Effie Karageorgos, Australian Historical Studies, Vol. 51 (1), 2020)
“Eugenics at the Edges of Empire exemplifies the importance of postcolonial historiography and its role in shaping our understanding of the eugenics movement. … Eugenics at the Edges of Empire is a judicious introduction to the subject and expands the reader’s appreciation for the international scope of eugenics. … recommended for courses in the fields of social history, postcolonial studies, the history of science, the history of medicine, international studies, and public policy studies.” (Dennis L. Durst, Isis, Vol. 110 (4), December, 2019)
“A valuable and readable collection of essays which, taken as a whole, do much to advance discussion of the importance of locale in eugenics, and specifically, in this volume, its influence and impact in the settler colonies of the British Empire.” (Philippa Levine, Social History of Medicine, Vol. 32 (4), November, 2019)
Editors and Affiliations
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University of Massachusetts Boston (Emerita), Boston, USA
Diane B. Paul
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Department of History and Art History, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
John Stenhouse
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Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Hamish G. Spencer
About the editors
Diane B. Paul is Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts Boston and Research Associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA. Her research has principally focused on the histories of evolution and genetics, especially as they relate to eugenics and the nature-nurture debate.
John Stenhouse is Associate Professor in the Department of History and Art History at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. His research interests centre on nineteenth century science, religion, race, politics and gender, and their interconnections.
Hamish G. Spencer is Professor in the Department of Zoology, at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. He is a geneticist interested in the history of eugenics, especially the genetical arguments used by eugenists. He and Diane Paul have also co-authored essays on the history of laws and attitudes surrounding first-cousin marriage.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Eugenics at the Edges of Empire
Book Subtitle: New Zealand, Australia, Canada and South Africa
Editors: Diane B. Paul, John Stenhouse, Hamish G. Spencer
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64686-2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-64685-5Published: 01 December 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-87850-8Published: 31 August 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-64686-2Published: 16 November 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 320
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour
Topics: Imperialism and Colonialism, Social History, History of Science