G1: American Eugenics and the Global Rise of Fascism that led to World War II

Coined by Francis Galton, cousin of the renowned Charles Darwin, the term "eugenics" means "well-born" and theorizes that humanity could be improved by encouraging the fittest members of society to have more children. In the United States, the eugenics movement hit its stride in the early 1900s, when increased interest in the genetics of animal breeding coincided with the rediscovery of Mendel's 1865 work demonstrating the inheritance patterns of certain characteristics in pea plants. Made popular in the early twentieth century by American biologist, Charles Davenport, America's eugenics movement helped Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in their rise to power, popular acceptance of Autocracy and Fascism as constructive political movements, and the undoing of many of the world's democracies in the 1920s and 1930s. Widely accepted as valid science by many, including famous people such as Theodore Roosevelt, Hellen Keller, HG Wells, and Winston Churchill among others, eventually eugenics was largely dismissed as a scientific field of study after World War II. Remarkably, however, there are still U.S. states with eugenics laws on their books today.

Purpose: Learn how the "science" of American eugenics was at the root of the greatest conflict the world has ever known

Facilitator: Steve Vesce (Guest Presenter – Georgia)