Emily

=** Beare US History Research Wiki Journal Prompts **= = =


 * Journal Entry 1:** Topic and ideas -- What are you investigating? What are the questions that are guiding your investigation.

I am investigating the history of the eugenics movement in America. Eugenics is basically the science of improving the human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of “desirable” heritable characteristics. The science, however, was abandoned when it was assumed that being black, or an immigrant, or a criminal, or having some sort of mental illness made one genetically unfit for reproduction. So, in order to eliminate such traits from the gene pool, more than 65,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized by their government. 1

I feel that though this is a very broad topic, there aren’t many ways to narrow it down (although suggestions are welcome). Assessments of one’s genetic prowess were fairly common with the new IQ test and Fitter Families for Future Firesides Contests at every state fair. There are many court cases concerning this topic, one of which an entire book focuses on, where prisoners rioted to protect themselves from the new laws of sterility, and how the case reached the Supreme Court.2 While these are examples of more specific topics, I am more interested in //eugenics.//

What were the reactions of the American people? How was the science incorporated into politics? How did eugenicists justify taking away the basic rights of so many people? How did the people against eugenics react, and what attempts were made to stop it? How did Christian sects, most of which were against any type of birth control at the time, react? If they supported it, how was it justified “in the eyes of God”?

1. Buinius, Harry. //Better for all the World - the Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America's Quest for Racial Purity//. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 2. Nourse, Victoria F. //In Reckless Hands : Skinner v. Oklahoma and the Near Triumph of American Eugenics//. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2008.


 * Journal Entry 2:** A comment on your process to date, a brief discussion of your sources, and a listing of sources you are currently working with (correct Turabian format). This should be a significant step forward from your initial bibliography.

I’ve decided to focus my research on two court cases: //Buck vs. Bell//, in which the Supreme Court confirmed the constitutionality of Virginia’s Eugenical Sterilization Act in 1927, and //Skinner vs. Oklahoma//, in which it was ruled that compulsory sterilization could not be imposed as a punishment or crime in 1942. //Skinner vs. Oklahoma// is usually incorrectly credited for ending all compulsory sterilization in the U.S.; however, it was the “beginning of the end” for the eugenics movement. Compulsory sterilization became a touchy subject in courtrooms, and sterilization rates dropped severely; the discovery of Nazi war crimes done in the name of eugenics (heavily inspired by American law) dealt the final blow to the ideology’s public favor in the US. Anyways, what I am interested in is the difference between these two cases (and the public opinion concerning them) and what happened during those 15 years in between which changed an entire country’s view of basic human rights.

My sources include a few books focusing on the general history and philosophy of genetics [1 and 2], //In Reckless Hands// by Victoria F. Nourse [3], which is a detailed account of the //Skinner vs. Oklahoma// case, a very interesting historical collection online about //Buck vs. Bell// [4], and I plan to utilize the school’s suggested online journal databases and the archives of newspapers and magazines such as //Time// and //The New York Times,// to get primary resources for different views of the public, and to hopefully help me answer my questions from the previous wiki post.

1. Kevles, Daniel J. //In the Name of Eugenics : Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity//. New York: Knopf, 1985. 2. Buinius, Harry. //Better for all the World - the Secret History of Forced Sterilization and America's Quest for Racial Purity//. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. 3. Nourse, Victoria F. //In Reckless Hands : Skinner v. Oklahoma and the Near Triumph of American Eugenics//. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2008. 4. Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. “ Eugenics: Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Virginia, Eugenics & Buck v. Bell”. Historical Collections, Eugenics. [] (accessed April 14th, 2010)


 * Journal Entry 3:** What is your Thesis?

Even though the judicial system claims to make it's rulings based on the constitution alone, the public opinion of eugenics had a huge effect in the judgments of the court cases Buck vs. Bell, and fifteen years later, Skinner vs. Oklahoma, two similar trials with opposite outcomes.