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.
Table of Content
1. Introduction, Eugenics as a Transnational Subject: The British Dominions; Diane B. Paul, John Stenhouse and Hamish G. Spencer.- 2. “The Liberty of the Nation”: The Limits of Illiberalism: Eugenics in Australia and New Zealand; Stephen Garton.- 3. Eugenics in Canada:Choice, Coercion and Context; Erika Dyck.- 4. The Nature of Eugenic Thought and Limits of Eugenic Practice in Inter-War Saskatchewan; Alexander Deighton.- 5. Eugenic Sterilization in New Zealand: The Story of the Mental Defectives Amendment Act of 1928; Hamish G. Spencer.- 6. Debating Clause 21: ‘Eugenic Marriage’ in New Zealand; Angela Wanhalla.- 7. Undesirable Bill’s Undesirables Bill: William Pember Reeves and Early Eugenics in New Zealand; John Stenhouse.- 8. Thinking Dangerous Thoughts: Post-primary Education and Eugenics in Australia: 1905-1939; Ross L. Jones.- 9. ‘Of Eugenic Interest’? Baby Shows before the Great War; Caroline Daley.- 10. Sir Robert Stout as Freethinker and Eugenics Enthusiast; Emma Gattey.- 11.Revisiting Three Eugenic Moments: 1903, 1928, 1937: The Disappointments and Hopes of Antipodean Progressives; Charlotte Macdonald.- 12. Truby King, Infant Welfare, and the Boundaries of Eugenics; Diane B. Paul.- 13. ‘Aristocrats of Knowledge’: Māori Anthropologists and the Survival of the ‘Race’; Barbara Brookes.- 14. Eugenics and the Maintenance of White Supremacy in Modern South Africa; Susanne M. Klausen.
About the author
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.
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