Richard Lynn - Eugenics: a reassessment

Cover

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Eugenics

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Richard Lynn

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lynn, Richard.
Eugenics : a reassessment / Richard Lynn.
p. cm.(Human evolution, behavior, and intelligence, ISSN 1063-2158)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-275-95822-1 (alk. paper)
1. Eugenics. I. Title. II. Series.
HQ751 .L9 2001
363.9'2dc21 00-052459

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.

Copyright 2001 by Richard Lynn

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-052459

ISBN: 0-275-95822-1

ISSN: 1063-2158

First published in 2001

Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881

An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).

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During the course of the twentieth century a profound change took place in scientific and public attitudes to eugenics. In the first half of the century, virtually all biological scientists and most social scientists supported eugenics, and so also did many of the informed public. In the second half of the century, support for eugenics declined; and in the last three decades of the century, eugenics became almost universally rejected. In the history of science there is nothing particularly unusual in the rejection of a scientific theory. This has happened frequently as theories have come to be seen as incorrect and have been discarded. What is unusual is the rejection of a theory that is essentially correct. It is my objective in this book to establish that this is what occurred in the twentieth century with regard to eugenics.

There is such widespread lack of understanding about what eugenics is that it will be useful to begin with a summary statement of what can be called the general theory of eugenics. This consists of eight core propositions. These are: