The Hour of Eugenics": Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin America

Eugenics was a term coined in 1883 to name the scientific and social theory that advocated "race improvement" through selective human breeding. In Europe and the United States the eugenics movement found many supporters before it was finally discredited by its association with the racist ideology of Nazi Germany. Examining for the first time how eugenics was taken up by scientists and social reformers in Latin America, Nancy Leys Stepan compares the eugenics movements in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina with the more familiar cases of Britain, the United States, and Germany. In this highly original account, Stepan sheds new light on the role of science in reformulating the problems of race, gender, reproduction, and public health in a time of intensified searching for new national identities. Drawing upon a rich body of evidence concerning the technical publications and professional meetings of Latin American eugenists, she traces a vibrant picture of how they adapted eugenic principles to their varying local contexts between the world wars. Stepan demonstrates that the eugenists of Latin America diverged considerably from their counterparts in Britain and the United States in their ideological approaches and their interpretations of key texts concerning heredity. "The Hour of Eugenics" raises crucial questions about the relationship between social and cultural identity and the nature of scientific discourse. It will be essential reading for historians of science and medicine, Latin Americanists, and others interested in cultural history and women's history.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Science and Social Knowledge1. The New Genetics and the Beginnings of Eugenics2. Eugenics in Latin America: Its Origins and Institutional Ecology3. Racial Poisons and the Politics of Heredity in Latin America in the 1920s4. "Matrimonial Eugenics": Gender and the Construction of Negative Eugenics5. National Identities and Racial Transformations6. U.S., Pan American, and Latin Visions of Eugenics7. Conclusion: Science and the Politics of InterpretationIndex

About the Author :
Nancy Leys Stepan is Professor of History at Columbia University.

Review :
In a thoughtful and carefully researched book, Nancy Stepan examines the political, cultural, and scientific roles of eugenics in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico from the 1910s through the 1940s.... She skillfully shows the ideological dualities resulting from eugenic practices.... An excellent addition to the literature on eugenics and the history of science in Latin America. (Medical History) Race is the primary focus in Nancy Leys Stepan's fascinating account of the fortunes of eugenic ideas and policies in the racially mixed setting of Latin America.... Stepan has now made a significant contribution to an international picture of the development of race and population policies. It is particularly useful in showing the remarkable plasticity of racist discourses on reproduction. (Signs) Stepan's warning regarding the politics of scientific interpretation in the future seems most appropriate.... This is an important book, meticulously done, and will be of significant value to Latin Americanists (especially Brazilianists), to historians of science and medicine and to those concerned with the history of ideas as well as those interested in the rise (and fall?) of eugenics. (American Historical Review) This book serves as an important corrective to the myopic vision underlying much of the older historiography of the movement.... A sophisticated, non-reductionist treatment of an important topic.... A splendid book. (Journal of the History of Medicine)