LOVE AND EUGENICS IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY by Angelique Richardson ( 9780198187011 )

Item Details

Title:

LOVE AND EUGENICS IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
RATIONAL REPRODUCTION AND THE NEW WOMAN

By:

Angelique Richardson

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£49.99

Our price:

£43.74

Discount:

12.5% off

You save:

£6.25

ISBN 10:

0198187017

ISBN 13:

9780198187011

Availability:

Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.

Delivery rates

Stock:

Currently 0 available

Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

12 June, 2008

Pages:

280

Description:

Exploring the pervasiveness of eugenic ideas in fin-de-siecle Britain, and recontextualizing New Woman fiction, Angelique Richardson's well-received book makes a radical contribution to nineteenth-century studies, establishing the intimate relations between early feminism and eugenics.

Synopsis:

The idea of eugenics - human selective breeding - originated in Victorian Britain in response to the urban poor. Darwin's evolutionary theory had laid the foundations for eugenics, replacing paradise with primordial slime. Man had not fallen from Grace, but risen from the swamps. And, as architect of his own destiny, he might rise still further. Eugenics was developed by Darwin's cousin Francis Galton in the 1860s. Embracing the idea of evolution, eugenists argued that through the judicious control of human reproduction, and the numerical increase of the middle class, Britain's supremacy in the world maintained. Born and bred among the competitive Victorian middle class, eugenics was a biologistic discourse on class. Aiming at 'racial improvement' by altering the balance of class in society, it was, Galton argued, 'practical Darwinism'. Eugenics found its most sustained expression in fiction and the periodical press, and was central to late nineteenth-century ideas on social progress forming part of the debate between hereditarians and environmentalists that peaked in the closing years of the century. Even Gladstone had his vital statistics measured in Galton's eugenic laboratory.Among the champions of eugenics were social purity feminists and New Women, writers such as George Egerton, Ellice Hopkins, and Sarah Grand, who argued that women were naturally- biologically - moral, and that through rational reproduction middle-class women could regenerate the British imperial race. The New Woman has been the subject of numerous critical works in the last ten years or so. However, the oppressive ideas that coexisted with the emancipatory theories of some New Women - ideas that were supremely class conscious - remain largely unexamined, as the focus remains on her more progressive aspects. Love and Eugenics in the Late Nineteenth Century recontextualizes New Woman writers, demonstrating that they were as concerned with the questions of poverty, sickness and health as they were with the changing role of women, the issue for which they are currently generally known and celebrated.Focusing on fiction and the press, and drawing on the papers and published work of Galton and other eugenists, Love and Eugenics in the Late Nineteenth Century reveals the cultural pervasiveness of eugenics and explores, for the first time, the intimate relations between early feminism and eugenics, and making a radical contribution to nineteenth-century studies.

Illustrations:

16 cartoons and illustrations of the eugenic debate

Publication:

Imprint:

Oxford University Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

AFTER DARWIN: ANIMALS, EMOTIONS, AND THE MIND (HB)

LOVE AND EUGENICS IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY (HB)

THE NEW WOMAN IN FICTION AND FACT (HB)

THE NEW WOMAN IN FICTION AND FACT (PB)