Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1870–1945

Analysis of the orgins of the holocaust traditionally centres around völkisch racial ideologies, overlooking the effects of racial ideas on biology and health. Based on a wealth of hitherto neglected archival sources, this book analyses the origins, social composition and impact of eugenics in the context of the social and political tension of an industrialising empire.

Paul Weindling (Author)

9780521423977, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 July 1993

660 pages, 9 b/w illus. 10 tables
22.7 x 15.1 x 3.5 cm, 0.918 kg

'Paul Weindling's book is very good indeed … [it] needs to be read by anyone embarking on a cultural history of the European world of 1900'. Norman Stone, The Guardian

Analysis of the orgins of the holocaust traditionally centres around völkisch racial ideologies, overlooking the effects of racial ideas on biology and health. Based on a wealth of hitherto neglected archival sources, this book analyses the origins, social composition and impact of eugenics in the context of the social and political tension of an industrialising empire.

Introduction: science and social cohesion
1. Social Darwinism
2. Between utopianism and racial hygiene
3. From hygiene to family welfare
4. Struggle for survival, the 1914-1918 war
5. Revolution and racial reconstruction
6. Weimar eugenics
7. The sick bed of democracy, 1929-32
8. Nazi racial hygiene
9. Eugenics and German politics.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]