‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Printable Version +- Forums (https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards) +-- Forum: The Parade Ground (https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/forumdisplay.php?fid=2) +--- Forum: Historical Discussion (https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/forumdisplay.php?fid=17) +--- Thread: ‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics (/showthread.php?tid=47311) |
‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Copper - 08-04-2008 Oklahomans may be surprised to learn the state shares a dark past with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Eugenics, the wonder science of the early 1900s, hailed by academics worldwide as a means to improve a race by sterilizing those who possessed serious heredity defects, was also embraced by Gov. Alfalfa Bill Murray. This book, "In Reckless Hands: Skinner v. Oklahoma and the Near-Triumph of American Eugenics” (W.W. Norton, $24.95) by Victoria F. Nourse, examines how a scientific theory about nature was transformed into the basis of social policy ordained by the power of the state of Oklahoma. The case's backdrop began in 1927 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a forced sterilization of a feebleminded girl in the case of Buck v. Bell. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "Three generations of imbeciles [were] enough.” The law deferred to the state of Virginia's right to regulate health and safety. Jack Skinner, 24, held in the McAlester prison for stealing 23 chickens and armed robbery, challenged the 1935 Oklahoma law that mandated sterilization for undesirable persons in prisons or state asylums. Subject to the law were three-time repeat criminals or the feebleminded. The law mandated his sterilization before he could return to society after his sentence was satisfied. The book's title comes from a line in the 1942 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Skinner v. Oklahoma striking down this Oklahoma law, warning that "in reckless hands” an entire "race or types” might "wither and disappear.” Not coincidentally, this was the year Nazis were trying to eradicate the Jewish race on the theory of natural inferiority. Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas can produce horrible consequences. Yet, as late as the 1960s, more than 100,000 people had been sterilized under U.S. federal health and welfare programs, the author writes. Nourse, a law college professor at Emory University, provides a fascinating story of gritty and determined Oklahoma lawyers who took Skinner's case to the nation's highest court. This book should appeal to general readers of Oklahoma history and those interested in the modern science of genetics, which likewise promises a better future through the selection of desirable genetic traits. Will the history of human engineering repeat itself? RE: ‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Steel God - 08-04-2008 Now you're just tempting me Shane. ;) RE: ‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Copper - 08-05-2008 LOL... now Paul... would I do a thing like that? RE: ‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Justin MacDuro - 08-05-2008 Maybe I'm wrong , but I think that many states from US had laws about sterilization , not only Oklahoma . I can't remember the name but there is a very good documentary from Histroy Channel about sterelization in the U.S. during the the first decades of the past century . Eugenics was very popular in the early 1900s , not only in U.S. or Germany , it was a worlwide fever . RE: ‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Steel God - 08-05-2008 Eugenics is still a world wide fashion (not just in the states), we just practice it in a manner that it's impossible to hear any of the complaints by the victims, but I really don't want to have the conversation here. Which is why I told Shane he's taunting me. RE: ‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Justin MacDuro - 08-05-2008 Steel God Wrote:Eugenics is still a world wide fashion (not just in the states), we just practice it in a manner that it's impossible to hear any of the complaints by the victims, but I really don't want to have the conversation here. Which is why I told Shane he's taunting me. OMG now I understand the intention of your comentary RE: ‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Sgt Barker - 08-05-2008 Wikipedia isn't the best source, but there's a pretty good summation for Eugenics there. From the top: Quote:Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.[2] Throughout history, eugenics has been regarded by its various advocates as a social responsibility, an altruistic stance of a society, meant to create healthier and more intelligent people, to save resources, and lessen human suffering. It was "the science of the day" in the 30s referenced in another thread, and the basis for my skepticism with a good society being based entirely on the "rational." I'm an old foggie who thinks that there are some things people just shouldn't do. Prime among them being the organized killing/breeding of people for certain traits. RE: ‘Reckless Hands' looks at state's history with eugenics - Kingmaker - 08-05-2008 HiHi Quote: Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.[2] Throughout history, eugenics has been regarded by its various advocates as a social responsibility, an altruistic stance of a society, meant to create healthier and more intelligent people, to save resources, and lessen human suffering. Interesting definition; a product of the age of enlightenment? To me it doesn’t seem too different a rational from what is advocated in the Bible/Koran. All the Best Peter |