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OverviewThe 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. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Angelique Richardson (, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, Exeter University)Publisher: Oxford University Press Imprint: Oxford University Press Dimensions: Width: 13.80cm , Height: 1.40cm , Length: 21.50cm Weight: 0.401kg ISBN: 9780198187011ISBN 10: 0198187017 Pages: 280 Publication Date: 12 June 2008 Audience: College/higher education , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of ContentsList of illustrations Preamble 1: Introduction 2: Women and Nature 3: Charity and Citizenship 4: Science and Love 5: Sarah Grand and Eugenic Love 6: Sarah Grand, the Country and the City 7: George Egerton and Eugenic Morality 8: Mona Caird: Individualism and the Challenge to Eugenics Afterword Select Bibliography IndexReviews<br>UNEDITED UK REVIEW: Review from previous edition One of the most challenging and original studies I have come across for a long time. --John Carey<p><br>UNEDITED UK REVIEW: .. .an illuminating examination of the ways in which feminist writers incorporated eugenics and notions of rational reproduction into fiction in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. --Lara Marks, Medical History<p><br>UNEDITED UK REVIEW: beautifully written and meticulously argued --Naomi Hetherington, Textual Practice<p><br>UNEDITED UK REVIEW: Richardson's highlighting of the diverse ways in which love was constructed is compelling... elegantly and cogently brings together a wide range of eugenic and anti-eugenic sources and thinkers. --Lucy Delap, Women's History Review<p><br>UNEDITED UK REVIEW: Swiftly establishes itself as a very significant contribution to the expanded field of New Woman scholarship... of Grand, of the feminism of the period and of the cultural history of eugenics itself. Author InformationTab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |