Control

The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics

By: Adam Rutherford

Narrated by: Adam Rutherford

Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

How did an obscure academic idea pave the way to the Holocaust within just fifty years?

Why does eugenics still loom large in the 21st century, despite its genocidal past?

Did eugenics work? Could it work? Or was it always a pseudoscientific fantasy?

Throughout history, people have sought to reduce suffering, eliminate disease and enhance desirable qualities in their children. In the Victorian era eugenics, a full-blooded attempt to impose control over unruly biology, began to grow among the powerful and quickly spread to dozens of countries around the world. But these ideas are not merely historical: today, with new gene editing techniques, conversations are happening about tinkering with the DNA of our unborn children to make them smarter, fitter, stronger. Deeply steeped in contemporary genetics, CONTROL offers a vital account of one of the defining—and most destructive—ideas of the twentieth century.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Adam Rutherford (P)2022 Weidenfeld & Nicolson

A Quick and Ethical History of Eugenics

This is a good little overview of the history of Eugenics, a topic everyone should know a little bit about. The first half focuses specifically on its origins in the post-Darwinian period, in the early 20th century America, and Nazi Germany. The author is very knowledgeable about the key figures, and while dark, there is also a great deal of humour in this book owing to the irony and the idiocy of some of the big smarty-pants eugenicists.

A good deal of the second half focuses on the contemporary flirtation with Eugenics, mostly in Britain today, and i felt like the discussion here could have been more pointed, I did also feel like the author's attempt to justify the human breeding of animals because they are animals to be a little tautological. But the length of this title was just the right size. I listen to it in one sitting and, while somewhat sick of the broken toilet jokes, i found professor Rutherfold tolerable enough to be thinking about listening to "How to Argue With A Racist" next.