The early chapters of Lottery walk through a potted history of statistics and genetics, describing how many progenitors of those fields believed in deep and fixed human hierarchies, and how research in those fields has been used to justify and oppressively reinforce those hierarchies.
Famous supporters of eugenics included Margaret Sanger, George Bernard Shaw, John Maynard Keynes, etc.
I suppose the Right likes the idea that some people are inherently more valuable than others, and the Left likes the idea that the benefit of the collective is superior to the desires and rights of an individual.
The question is, how exactly it fell out of favor—was it only because Nazis happened to be enemies in WW2? (By the way, did Hitler get this idea from USA?)
Does this suggest that in a parallel universe branch where Hitler didn’t happen, eugenics is still popular and perhaps considered common sense? Or did it fall out of fashion in some other way? Too bad we have no way of finding out.
On your question about Hitler getting eugenic ideas from the US—yes, there’s some evidence that he did. Although I haven’t read it yet, the book “Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law” looks like a readable introduction to this concept.
Famous supporters of eugenics included Margaret Sanger, George Bernard Shaw, John Maynard Keynes, etc.
Indeed! It wasn’t rare by any means. A great book about this is Illiberal Reformers.
It was a true bipartisan dream.
I suppose the Right likes the idea that some people are inherently more valuable than others, and the Left likes the idea that the benefit of the collective is superior to the desires and rights of an individual.
The question is, how exactly it fell out of favor—was it only because Nazis happened to be enemies in WW2? (By the way, did Hitler get this idea from USA?)
Does this suggest that in a parallel universe branch where Hitler didn’t happen, eugenics is still popular and perhaps considered common sense? Or did it fall out of fashion in some other way? Too bad we have no way of finding out.
On your question about Hitler getting eugenic ideas from the US—yes, there’s some evidence that he did. Although I haven’t read it yet, the book “Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law” looks like a readable introduction to this concept.