The Nazi connection : eugenics, American racism, and German national socialism /

In this historical monograph K"uhl clearly and convincingly documents the strong connections and mutual support between eugenicists in the US and Germany for most of the first half of this century. In fact, K"uhl presents a strong case for how eugenics-influenced American sterilization and immigration-restriction laws served as a focus for discussion among eugenicists in the Weimar Republic and later as a source of justification for Nazi race policies. Only the direct entry of the US into WW II appeared to stem the collaboration and mutual admiration among eugenicists in the two countries. Moreover, K"uhl analyzes how the key political component of eugenics--the ideology of race improvement--continues to survive under different guises in the US, continues to clothe itself in the trappings of academic respectability, and continues to receive major foundation support. The author's scholarship is impressive and thorough, and he uses virtually all sources available in English and German. Notes, references, and index are excellent. An important and disturbing contribution to the literature on racism. All levels. W. P. Nye; Hollins College

Narrowly focused yet chillingly effective indictment of the American scientists and social theorists who inspired and applauded Nazi racist ideology. Eugenics--part science, part twisted Social Darwinism, according to German sociologist Kühl--was first defined in 1883 by Francis Galton as the ``science of improving the stock''--a science that went on to give academic respectability to the earliest expressions of Nazi racism. Insisting that many of the assumptions underlying Nazi thought were ``by no means limited to German scientists,'' the author skillfully dismantles postwar attempts to marginalize the activities of the worldwide eugenics establishment, particularly in the US. With European ties frayed post-WW I, America became the main scientific reference point for German theorists seeking international legitimacy: it unfortunately proved an influential model, not only intellectually but politically. A 1907 Indiana law permitting the sterilization of the mentally handicapped long predated Germany's 1933 Law on Preventing Hereditarily Ill Progeny, and the 1924 American Immigration Restriction Act was later praised by the future Führer in Mein Kampf. Meanwhile, US sponsors--including the Rockefeller Foundation and Jewish philanthropist James Loeb--helped fund major eugenics institutes in Germany. In turn, many of these sought greater recognition by offering honorary degrees to leading US eugenicists- -two of whom, Leon Whitney and Madison Grant, are glimpsed here proudly comparing appreciative letters from Hitler. A brief reference to a resurgence of scientific racism in today's academia adds an especially pertinent cautionary note. More a monograph than a fully realized history but, still, a well-documented revisionist rebuke to those who would isolate Nazism as a unique phenomenon.