The Biology of Superiority
Book details
- Title
- The Biology of Superiority
- Author
- Pearl s
- Publication year listed
- 1927
- Format
- Public domain eBook
- Reading access
- Free online reader; no registration required
- Source record
- View on Archive.org
About this book
The Biology of Superiority
Author: The American Mercury
Year: 1927
"In 1927, a renowned Johns Hopkins biologist named Raymond Pearl published a critique assailing eugenics. The eugenicists believed in the supremacy of heredity. Good genes made a strong man strong and an intelligent man smart, while bad genes could lead to poverty, prostitution, and criminality. Improving the human race would require ridding the population of "defective protoplasm" while encouraging the superior stock to breed more. By the mid-1920s, eugenics was the prevailing model of human genetics. But Pearl had found flaws in its underlying science, and he exposed these errors in his critique. It appeared in The American Mercury, an influential magazine published by Pearl's close friend, H. L. Mencken." — Johns Hopkins Magazine