Krementsov, Nikolai L. (Author)
Open Book Publishers
Physical Details: 786
Language: English
In 1865, British polymath Francis Galton published his initial thoughts about the scientific field that would become ‘eugenics.’ The same year, Russian physician Vasilii Florinskii addressed similar issues in a sizeable treatise, entitled Human Perfection and Degeneration. Initially unheralded, Florinskii’s book would go on to have a remarkable afterlife in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Russia.In this lucid and insightful work, Nikolai Krementsov argues that the concept of eugenics brings together ideas, values, practices, and fears energised by a focus on the future. It has proven so seductive to different groups over time because it provides a way to grapple with fundamental existential questions of human nature and destiny. With and Without Galton develops this argument by tracing the life-story of Florinskii’s monograph from its uncelebrated arrival amid the Russian empire’s Great Reforms, to its reissue after the Bolshevik Revolution, its decline under Stalinism, and its subsequent resurgence: first, as a founding document of medical genetics, and most recently, as a manifesto for nationalists and racial purists.Krementsov’s meticulously researched ‘biography of a book’ sheds light not only on the peculiar fate of eugenics in Russia, but also on its convoluted transnational history, elucidating the field’s protean nature and its continuing and contested appeal to diverse audiences, multiple local trajectories, and global trends. It is required reading for historians of eugenics, science, medicine, education, literature, and Russia, and it will also appeal to the general reader looking for a deeper understanding of this challenging subject.
...MoreReview Asif Siddiqi (2021) Review of "With and Without Galton: Vasilii Florinskii and the Fate of Eugenics in Russia". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 617-619).
Review Asif Siddiqi (2021) Review of "With and Without Galton: Vasilii Florinskii and the Fate of Eugenics in Russia". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 617-619).
Review Maria Burcur (2019) Review of "With and Without Galton: Vasilii Florinskii and the Fate of Eugenics in Russia". Social History of Medicine (pp. 649-651).
Similar Citations
Book
Nikolai Krementsov;
(2018)
With and Without Galton: Vasilii Florinskii and the Fate of Eugenics in Russia
Article
Paul, Diane B.;
Day, Benjamin;
(2008)
John Stuart Mill, Innate Differences, and the Regulation of Reproduction
Thesis
Le Devedec, Nicolas;
(2013)
La société de l'amélioration: Le renversement de la perfectibilité humaine, de l'humanisme des Lumiéres à l'humain augmenté
Book
David Redvaldsen;
(2024)
A History of British Eugenics since 1865: From Francis Galton to Designer Babies
Article
Foschi, Renato;
(2019)
L’eugenetica nella storia della psicologia
Chapter
Larson, Edward J.;
(2010)
Biology and the Emergence of the Anglo-American Eugenics Movement
Article
Ruiz Gutiérrez, Rosaura;
Guazo, López;
Suárez, Laura;
(2002)
Eugenesia, herencia, selección y biometría en la obra de Francis Galton
Thesis
Lowenfeld, Daniel;
(2011)
The International Origins and Popularization of Eugenics
Article
Cole, Simon A.;
(2007)
Twins, Twain, Galton, and Gilman: Fingerprinting, Individualization, Brotherhood, and Race in Pudd'nhead Wilson
Article
Ajavon, François-Xavier;
(2006)
Trois exemples historiques d'eugenisme avant Galton (1883): Platon, Soranos & Vandermonde (2e partie)
Article
Buss, Allan R.;
(1976)
Galton and the birth of differential psychology and eugenics: Social, political, and economic forces
Article
David Stack;
(2024)
Alfred Russel Wallace’s Darwinian Opposition to Eugenics
Article
Elise Smith;
(2020)
“Why do we measure mankind?” Marketing anthropometry in late-Victorian Britain
Book
Walter, Wolfgang;
(1983)
Der Geist der Eugenik: Francis Galtons Wissenschaftsreligion in kultursoziologischer Perspektive
Chapter
Fancher, Raymond E.;
(2001)
Eugenics and Other Victorian “Secular Religions”
Book
Richardson, Angelique;
(2003)
Love and Eugenics in the Late Nineteenth Century: Rational Reproduction and the New Woman
Book
Brookes, Martin;
(2004)
Extreme Measures: The Dark Visions and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton
Article
Ajavon, François-Xavier;
(2005)
Trois exemples historiques d'eugénisme avant Galton (1883): Platon, Soranos & Vandermonde (Ière partie)
Thesis
Cannariato, Christy A.;
(2007)
The Probability of Progress: Resisting History in Galton and Modern Fiction,1869--1936
Article
Alvarez Peláez, Raquel;
(1985)
Las fuentas francesas de la eugenesia de Galton
Be the first to comment!