Having coined the word `eugenics' and inspired leading biologists and statisticians of the early twentieth century, Francis Galton is often studied for his contributions to modern statistical biology. However, whilst documenting this part of his work, historians have frequently neglected crucial aspects of what motivated Galton to establish his eugenics research programme. Arguing that his work was shaped more by social than by biological science, this paper addresses these oversights by tracing the development of Galton's programme, from its roots in a debate about political economy to his appeals for it to be taken up by sociologists. In so doing, the paper not only returns Galton's ideas to their original context but also provides a reason to reflect on the place of the social sciences in history-of-science scholarship.
...More
Book
Crook, Paul;
(2007)
Darwin's Coat-Tails: Essays on Social Darwinism
(/isis/citation/CBB000850675/)
Chapter
Gissis, Snait B.;
(2011)
Lamarckism and the Constitution of Sociology
(/isis/citation/CBB001500088/)
Article
Pŭras, Adomas;
(2014)
Robert Owen in the History of the Social Sciences: Three Presentist Views
(/isis/citation/CBB001214612/)
Article
Bond, Niall;
(2013)
Ferdinand Tönnies and Enlightenment: A Friend or Foe of Reason?
(/isis/citation/CBB001201146/)
Thesis
Edwards, Barrington Steven;
(2001)
W. E. B. Du Bois, empirical social research and the challenge to race, 1868-1910
(/isis/citation/CBB001562601/)
Book
Leonardo Ciacci;
(2023)
Patrick Geddes
(/isis/citation/CBB502845517/)
Article
Tontonoz, Matthew;
(2008)
The Scopes Trial Revisited: Social Darwinism Versus Social Gospel
(/isis/citation/CBB000932287/)
Article
Lawrence, Christopher;
(2009)
Degeneration under the Microscope at the fin se siècle
(/isis/citation/CBB001021545/)
Article
Kilminster, Richard;
(2014)
The Dawn of Detachment: Norbert Elias and Sociology's Two Tracks
(/isis/citation/CBB001420226/)
Book
Richardson, Angelique;
(2003)
Love and Eugenics in the Late Nineteenth Century: Rational Reproduction and the New Woman
(/isis/citation/CBB000501082/)
Article
Waller, John C.;
(2001)
Ideas of heredity, reproduction and eugenics in Britain, 1800--1875
(/isis/citation/CBB000100764/)
Article
Elise Smith;
(2020)
“Why do we measure mankind?” Marketing anthropometry in late-Victorian Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB717605789/)
Chapter
Irurozqui, Marta;
(2001)
“Desvío al Paraíso”: Citizenship and Social Darwinism in Bolivia, 1880-1920
(/isis/citation/CBB000102724/)
Article
Sheppard, Kathleen L.;
(2010)
Flinders Petrie and Eugenics at UCL
(/isis/citation/CBB001020332/)
Article
Paul, Diane B.;
Day, Benjamin;
(2008)
John Stuart Mill, Innate Differences, and the Regulation of Reproduction
(/isis/citation/CBB000831702/)
Article
Gal Hertz;
(June 2019)
From Epistemology of Suspicion to Racial Profiling: Hans Gross, Mobility, and Crime around 1900
(/isis/citation/CBB482325612/)
Thesis
Lowenfeld, Daniel;
(2011)
The International Origins and Popularization of Eugenics
(/isis/citation/CBB001562732/)
Thesis
Cannariato, Christy A.;
(2007)
The Probability of Progress: Resisting History in Galton and Modern Fiction,1869--1936
(/isis/citation/CBB001561289/)
Article
Young, Cristobal;
(2009)
The Emergence of Sociology from Political Economy in the United States: 1890 to 1940
(/isis/citation/CBB000932847/)
Book
Kolchinskii, Eduard I.;
(2006)
Biologiia Germanii i Rossii-SSSR v usloviiakh sotsial'no-politicheskikh krizisov pervoi poloviny XX veka: mezhdu liberalizmom, kommunizmom i natsional-sotsializmom
(/isis/citation/CBB000820049/)
Be the first to comment!