Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.36 (775 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0674745809 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 496 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-08-19 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The social Darwinism of the late nineteenth century in America and Europe gave rise to theories of racial hygiene that were embraced by enthusiasts of various nationalities in the hope of breeding a better, healthier, stronger race of people. Proctor also presents an account of the "organic" health movement that flourished under the Nazis, including campaigns to reduce smoking and drinking, and efforts to require bakeries to produce whole-grain bread. Robert Proctor demonstrates that the common picture of a passive scientific community coerced into cooperation with the Nazis fails to grasp the reality of what actually happened--namely, that many of the political initiatives of the Nazis arose from within the scientific community, and that medical scientists actively designed and administered key elements of National Socialist policy. A separate chapter is devoted to the emergence of a resistance movement among doctors in the Association of Socialist Physicians. The book presents the most comprehensive account to date of German medical involvement in the sterilization and castration laws, the laws banning marriage between Jews and non-Jews, and the massive program to destroy "lives not worth living:' The study traces attempts on the part of doctors to conceive of the "Jewish problem" as a "medical problem," and how medical journals openly discussed the need to find a "final solution" to Germany's Jewis
"An unusually impressive book" according to Frank D. In a genre polarized with hysteria, Proctor's pursuit of objectivity in a subject as tricky as this is like a breath of fresh air.Much of the strength of this book lies in Proctor's able fluency in German - allowing him to quote directly (and accurately) from the considerable corpus of German medical literature of the era - thus sparing the reader the usual pattern of recycled opinions posited as primary evidence. The many tables, charts and diagrams from the era are especially illuminating.With admirable detachment (and with one imagines the attendant risks of. "Racial Hygiene" according to A. Médard. Directing his book to the academic world, Proctor presented the medical and biomedical communities as the propelling forces behind Hitler's holocaust. After explaining the historical origins and context of Nazism, Proctor provided an illuminating examination of the obscure, complex role of Nazi medical science and "applied biology" in the development of Nazi public health policy and the implementation of Nazi atrocities. Proctor disclosed how the medical profession, motivated by politics and a lust for power and prestige, used science to produce knowledge to be. Great Book Eyeopening! I read this book after Peter Sichrovsky's 'Schuldig Geboren' (Born Guilty) about the offspring of noted Nazis. The connection? A whole lot of the latter were descended from Nazi doctors. Many of them were themselves in or studying medicine, and the claim was made repeatedly of the huge following of the whole medical profession for Naziism. And why not?, the Nazi doctrine itself can be rendered by the phrase 'racial hygiene'! Imagine having a whole political movement willing to empower physicians, give them their heart's delight for social prestige and influence
Proctor (New School for Social Research) gives a rich explanation of the interaction of culture, politics, and science that engages and alerts the reader. If one accepted Aryan supremacy, Proctor shows how decisions, such as the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935, became eminently rational. Proctor reveals a superb knowledge of the proliferation of medical literature under National Socialism. . Though Proctor is too good a historian to indulge in moralistic judgments, his careful research seduces the reader into doing so. From Library Journal Despite a significant