Latin Eugenics in Comparative Perspective (Electronic book text)

Latin eugenics was a scientific, cultural and political programme designed to biologically empower nations once commonly considered 'Latin'. The Latin race or ethnicity included Europeans and South Americans with ostensibly common genealogical, linguistic, religious, and cultural origins. With the emergence of the science of eugenics in the late nineteenth century, Latin identity became a fundamental component of an internationally influential Latin version of eugenics. A History of Latin Eugenics, 1840s - 1940s offers a comparative approach that avoids simplistic reductionism, showing how the so-called Latin nations were in actuality very diverse. Marius Turda and Aaron Gilette's analysis covers three continents and includes coverage of France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Latin America. They argue that cultural similarities and opposition to the same foreign adversaries led the Latin nations to construct one broad eugenic theory that promised to encourage national unity, modernization and economic progress, with the goal of staving off geopolitical challengers.Drawing on a huge range of sources, this book offers the first history of Latin eugenics in Europe and Latin America.