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Overview""Three generations of imbeciles are enough."" Few lines from Supreme Court opinions are as memorable as this declaration by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in the landmark 1927 case Buck v. Bell. The ruling allowed states to forcibly sterilize residents in order to prevent ""feebleminded and socially inadequate"" people from having children. It is the only time the Supreme Court endorsed surgery as a tool of government policy. Paul Lombardo's startling narrative exposes the Buck case's fraudulent roots. In 1924 Carrie Buck-involuntarily institutionalized by the State of Virginia after she was raped and impregnated-challenged the state's plan to sterilize her. Having already judged her mother and daughter mentally deficient, Virginia wanted to make Buck the first person sterilized under a new law designed to prevent hereditarily ""defective"" people from reproducing. Lombardo's more than twenty-five years of research and his own interview with Buck before she died demonstrate conclusively that she was destined to lose the case before it had even begun. Neither Carrie Buck nor her mother and daughter were the ""imbeciles"" condemned in the Holmes opinion. Her lawyer-a founder of the institution where she was held-never challenged Virginia's arguments and called no witnesses on Buck's behalf. And judges who heard her case, from state courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court, sympathized with the eugenics movement. Virginia had Carrie Buck sterilized shortly after the 1927 decision. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Paul A. Lombardo (Georgia State University)Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.522kg ISBN: 9780801898242ISBN 10: 0801898242 Pages: 384 Publication Date: 26 November 2010 Recommended Age: From 17 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Replaced By: 9781421443188 Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsIntroduction Prologue: The Expert Witness 1. Problem Families 2. Sex and Surgery 3. The Pedigree Factory 4. Studying Sterilization 5. The Mallory Case 6. Laughlin's Book 7. A Virginia Sterilization Law 8. Choosing Carrie Buck 9. Carrie Buck versus Dr. Priddy 10. Defenseless 11. On Appeal: Buck v. Bell 12. In the Supreme Court 13. Reactions and Repercussions 14. After the Supreme Court 15. Sterilizing Germans 16. Skinner v. Oklahoma 17. Buck, at Nuremberg and After 18. Rediscovering Buck Epilogue: Reconsidering Buck AcknowledgmentsReviewsLaw professor and historian Paul Lombardo does a superb job of revealing, for the first time, all the facts in the infamous Buck v. Bell case of the 1920s, the Supreme Court decision ratifying Virginia's compulsory sterilization of 'feebleminded' people. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Highly recommended for academic, public, and law libraries. -- Philip Y. Blue Criminal Law Library Blog An engrossing look at a shameful case. Booklist Lombardo tells a compelling and heavily documented story of injustice to society's less fortunate citizens. His sympathy for the abused is evident, but that does not turn Three Generations, No Imbeciles into a polemic... Armed with knowledge from this excellent book, we can hope we never return to the mistakes of our past. Internet Review of Books The book is lucidly written, well researched, thorough, and provocative... Three Generations, No Imbeciles is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the historical context of Buck v. Bell and its implications for ethics, law and public policy. New England Journal of Medicine Lombardo reminds us that the same incentives to improve public health and lower tax burdens exist today. Pathophilia Startling. -- Damon W. Root Reason A sad and fascinating book... With his legal and historical background, Lombardo is particularly suited to give us a book that explains a surprisingly ignored injustice, its antecedents and consequences, and helps us to think about the ongoing struggle to find a health balance between privacy and government power. -- Stephen Murdoch History News Network This book is a legal and historical masterpiece, combining meticulous ethical analysis with a liveliness that belies its scholarly roots and exhaustive footnotes and research. -- Michael B. Blank PsycCRITIQUES Compelling and well-researched... Three Generations, No Imbeciles gives Carrie Buck's long-untold story the attention it deserves. Harvard Law Review In a very readable 279 pages, Paul A. Lombardo sets forth the facts about the eugenics movement in the United Sates. -- Robert T. Adams Virginia Lawyer Meticulously researched... As Lombardo conclusively demonstrates, those who sought to have Buck sterilized did not let the facts get in the way of the story the law required them to tell. -- Paul Lauritzen Commonweal Meticulously detailed and researched history... this book is enjoyable, thought provoking, and troubling in equal measure. I highly recommend it. -- Susan Stefan, J.D. Psychiatric Services Three Generations provides valuable, new, and timely revelations for students and professional scholars across many disciplines. -- Susan Burch Disability Studies Quarterly For almost 30 years, Lombardo has tried to uncover the full story of the wrongs. -- Andrea Pitzer USA Today Most thorough examination to date... Readers will be both intrigued and disturbed by what they encounter. -- Lynne Curry H-Law, H-Net Reviews What makes Lombardo's analysis so important is that issues about the fate of our mutant genes, about the use of technologies to monitor pregnancies at risk for birth defects, and alternatives to relying on chance alone are subverted by our fear of eugenics. -- Elof Axel Carlson Quarterly Review of Biology Overall, a fascinating book on one of the darker decisions in US law. An excellent addition to collections on US constitutional law, history, and reproductive rights. Choice The struggle for justice goes on. Bioethicists typically ask 'ought' questions, but not all follow up with activism. More bioethicists should accept the social activist role. Paul Lombardo demonstrates exactly how it can be done. -- Ruth Levy Guyer American Journal of Bioethics Heartbreaking and riveting... There is likely to be no better account of Buck v. Bell than Lombardo's book. -- Ian Dowbiggin, Ph.D. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences A remarkable work of investigation and narrative synthesis, Lombardo connects Buck v. Bell to a broader debate over the place of eugenics in American life and law... Having amassed over two decades of research, including interviewing Carrie Buck, Lombardo is uniquely qualified to tell this story. -- Jason Morgan Ward Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Three Generations, No Imbeciles manages to be both a meticulously researched work of history and a compelling story. -- John G. Browning Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics A powerful commentary on the dangers of politicized medicine and social engineering. -- Daniel P. Murphy Magill Book Reviews This painstakingly researched book will surely be the definitive study of Buck v. Bell for many years to come. -- Diane B. Paul American Historical Review As a historical endeavor, it is rich and rewarding, permitting the reader a broad understanding of the social, cultural and legal context for the case that inspired Oliver Wendell Holmes' famous quotation, 'Three generations of imbeciles are enough.'... Equally important as the excavation of this history is the manner in which Lombardo's writing surfaces the emotional consequences of fertility-related policies. -- Michelle Oberman Journal of Legal Education Lombardo does an excellent job of meticulously laying out the sham nature of Buck v. Bell, and by the end of the text, the reader is left with no doubt that the case, which has never been overturned, was mired in deceit... Fascinating nuggets of racial politics, class inequality, and fear of the female body. Law & Society Review Lombardo convincingly shows that the eugenics of the 1920s, despite professional reversals and government apologies, still echoes in discussions of designer babies, grumbling about the costs of social programs and attempts to calculate the financial value of life. -- Edward Slavishak, PhD Nursing History Review This book is suitable for any audience interested in the history of the eugenics movement in the United States. -- Susan L. Smith, Ph.D. Metapsychology Three Generations, No Imbeciles chronicles Buck's tragic life and reviews the larger history of American eugenics in a moving narrative that will appeal to a broad audience of lay readers interested in controversies over reproductive rights, public health, science, and the law. -- Brent Ruswick Isis Compelling. brilliant... and refreshing. -- Jana Grekul Comptes Rendus Biologies A remarkable work of investigation and narrative synthesis, Lombardo connects Buck v. Bell to a broader debate over the place of eugenics in American life and law... Having amassed over two decades of research, including interviewing Carrie Buck, Lombardo is uniquely qualified to tell this story. - Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Lucidly written, well researched, thorough, and provocative... A must read for anyone who wants to understand the historical context of Buck v. Bell and its implications for ethics, law and public policy. - New England Journal of Medicine Lombardo does a superb job of revealing, for the first time, all the facts in the infamous Buck v. Bell case of the 1920s, the Supreme Court decision ratifying Virginia's compulsory sterilization of 'feebleminded' people. - Publishers Weekly (starred review) Heart-breaking and riveting... There is likely to be no better account of Buck v. Bell than Lombardo's book. - Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Author InformationPaul A. Lombardo is a professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law. He has played a key role, as both a historian and a lawyer, in the movement to solicit state apologies and legislative denunciations of past eugenics laws. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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