Social Mendelism
Genetics and the Politics of Race in Germany, 1900–1948

Will revolutionize reader's understanding of the principles of modern genetics, Nazi racial policies and the relationship between them.

Amir Teicher (Author)

9781108499491, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 February 2020

280 pages, 24 b/w illus. 1 table
23.5 x 16 x 1.8 cm, 0.59 kg

'This ambitious and thoroughly researched book seeks to achieve nothing less than a major rethink of the intellectual background to Nazism.' Dan Stone, German Studies Review

Who was the scientific progenitor of eugenic thought? Amir Teicher challenges the preoccupation with Darwin's eugenic legacy by uncovering the extent to which Gregor Mendel's theory of heredity became crucial in the formation - and radicalization - of eugenic ideas. Through a compelling analysis of the entrenchment of genetic thinking in the social and political policies in Germany between 1900 and 1948, Teicher exposes how Mendelian heredity became saturated with cultural meaning, fed racial anxieties, reshaped the ideal of the purification of the German national body and ultimately defined eugenic programs. Drawing on scientific manuscripts and memoirs, bureaucratic correspondence, court records, school notebooks and Hitler's table talk as well as popular plays and films, Social Mendelism presents a new paradigm for understanding links between genetics and racism, and between biological and social thought.

Introduction
1. Mendel's laws and their application to humans, 1865–1913
2. Mendelism maturing: from experimental to interpretative framework, 1913–1933
3. Mendelism, purity and national renewal
4. Annihilating defective genes: Mendelian consciousness and the sterilization campaign
5. Mendelizing racial antisemitism
Epilogue: social Mendelism beyond the Nazis.

Subject Areas: Genetics [non-medical PSAK], History of science [PDX], Fascism & Nazism [JPFQ]