On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:11:57 -0700 Marta Russell <ap888 at lafn.org> writes:
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> Eugenics was supported by H.G. Wells, Emile Zola, George Bernard
> Shaw
> as well as Margaret Sanger.
Prior to the Third Reich, eugenics enjoyed broad support among intellectuals and policy makes across the political spectrum, from the far right to the far left, and most points in between. People differed sharply on the purposes of eugenics policies, but there was widespread support as far as the acceptability of eugenics techniques were concerned.
Trotsky espouses eugenics in his essay, "If America should go Communist" http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1934/08/ame.htm
See the concluding paragraph:
"While the romantic numskulls of Nazi Germany are dreaming of restoring the old race of Europe’s Dark Forest to its original purity, or rather its original filth, you Americans, after taking a firm grip on your economic machinery and your culture, will apply genuine scientific methods to the problem of eugenics. Within a century, out of your melting pot of races there will come a new breed of men – the first worthy of the name of Man."
The American geneticist, Hermann J. Muller (known for his pioneering studies concerning the mutagenic effects of ionizing radiation) who was an outspoken advocate of eugenics, was also strongly sympathetic to the October Revolution in Russia, and he lived in the Soviet Union for a number of years where he persued genetics research. His advocacy of Mendelian genetics and consequentially his opposition to Lysenkoism eventually got him into hot water there, so he had to flee, returning to the US, where he eventually went on to win the Nobel Prize.
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> Although I confess I have not read Tom's book below, it probably
> tackles that matter:
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> Shakespeare TW (with Kerr A). Genetic Politics: from eugenics to
> genome. New Clarion Press: Cheltenham 2002.
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> Marta
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